Former judge Andrew P. Napolitano describes how our Fourth Amendment rights are being stolen away by our elected representatives.
QUOTE
The compromise version of the Patriot Act... is an unforgivable assault on basic American values and core constitutional liberties. Unless amended in response to the courageous efforts of a few dozen senators from both parties, the new Patriot Act will continue to give federal agents the power to write their own search warrants – the statute’s newspeak terminology calls them "national security letters" – and serve them on a host of persons and entities that regularly gather and store sensitive, private information on virtually every American.
Congress once respected the Fourth Amendment until it began cutting holes in it...
The deepest cut came on October 15, 2001 when Congress enacted the Patriot Act. With minimal floor debate in the Senate and no floor debate in the House (House members were given only 30 minutes to read the 315 page bill), Congress enacted this most unpatriotic rejection of privacy and constitutional guarantees. Together with its offspring the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal 2004 and the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004, the Patriot Act not only permits the execution of self-written search warrants on a host of new subjects, it rejects the no-criminal-prosecution protections of its predecessors by requiring evidence obtained contrary to the Fourth Amendment to be turned over to prosecutors and mandating that such evidence is constitutionally competent in criminal prosecutions.
The new version of the Patriot Act which the Senate will debate this weekend purports to make all of this congressional rejection of our history, our values, and our Constitution the law of the land...
Why would Congress, whose members swore to uphold the Constitution, authorize such a massive evasion of it by the federal agents we have come to rely upon to protect our freedoms? Why would Congress nullify the Fourth Amendment–guaranteed right to privacy for which we and our forbearers have fought and paid dearly? How could the men and women we elect to fortify our freedoms and write our laws so naïvely embrace the less-freedom-equals-more-security canard? Why have we fought for 230 years to keep foreign governments from eviscerating our freedoms if we will voluntarily let our own government do so?
The unfortunate answer to these questions is the inescapable historical truth that those in government – from both parties and with a few courageous exceptions – do not feel constrained by the Constitution. They think they can do whatever they want. They have hired vast teams of government lawyers to twist and torture the plain meaning of the Fourth Amendment to justify their aggrandizement of power to themselves. They vote for legislation they have not read and do not understand...
The Fourth Amendment worked for 200 years to facilitate law enforcement and protect constitutional freedoms before Congress began to cut holes in it. Judges sit in every state in the Union 24/7 to hear probable cause applications for search warrants. There is simply no real demonstrable evidence that our American-value-driven-constitutional-privacy-protection-system is in need of such a radical change.
A self-written search warrant, even one called a national security letter, is the ultimate constitutional farce. What federal agents would not authorize themselves to seize whatever they wished? Why even bother with such a meaningless requirement? We might as well let the feds rummage through any office, basement, computer, or bedroom they choose. Who would trust government agents with this unfettered unreviewable power? The Framers did not. Why would government agents bother going to a judge with probable cause seeking a search warrant if they can simply write their own? Big Brother must have caught on because federal agents have written and executed self-written search warrants on over 120,000 unsuspecting Americans since October 2001.
Is this the society we want? Have we ultimately elected a government to spy on all of us? The Fourth Amendment is the lynchpin of our personal privacy and individual dignity. Without the Fourth Amendment’s protections, we will become another East Germany. The Congress must recognize this before it is too late.
END QUOTE
How Congress Has Assaulted Our Freedoms in the Patriot Act by Andrew P. Napolitano
Friday, December 16, 2005
Smoking foes try to stop parents from lighting up
Here's an example of where the anti-smoking zealots are heading. It does not bode well for people who believe parents have the ultimate God-given responsibility for rearing their children. Just imagine where the camel might head after getting its nose under the edge of this tent.
E.g., what if the government starts to worry that a religious upbringing is not in the best interest of children?
QUOTE
Anti-smoking activists who are driving cigarettes from public places across the country are now targeting private homes -- especially those with children...
An appeals court upheld the ruling, but not before one judge raised questions about the extent to which a court should become involved in parental rights and whether certain behavior is harmful or simply not in a child's best interest...
If there's no health issue, it isn't the court's place to say someone can't do something that's perfectly legal, just because the other spouse doesn't want them to...
The smoking-at-home issue also sparked debate about whether such rulings will lead courts to become involved in such matters as parents' making poor TV programming choices for their children...
END QUOTE
Smoking foes try to stop parents from lighting up?-?Metropolitan?-?The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
E.g., what if the government starts to worry that a religious upbringing is not in the best interest of children?
QUOTE
Anti-smoking activists who are driving cigarettes from public places across the country are now targeting private homes -- especially those with children...
An appeals court upheld the ruling, but not before one judge raised questions about the extent to which a court should become involved in parental rights and whether certain behavior is harmful or simply not in a child's best interest...
If there's no health issue, it isn't the court's place to say someone can't do something that's perfectly legal, just because the other spouse doesn't want them to...
The smoking-at-home issue also sparked debate about whether such rulings will lead courts to become involved in such matters as parents' making poor TV programming choices for their children...
END QUOTE
Smoking foes try to stop parents from lighting up?-?Metropolitan?-?The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
2005-2006 Top Ten Conservative Colleges
The Young America's Foundation 2005-2006 “Top Ten Conservative College” list features ten institutions that proclaim, through their mission and programs, a dedication to discovering, maintaining, and strengthening the conservative values of their students.
The listed colleges offer an alternative to the liberal status quo, because they allow and encourage conservative students to explore conservative ideas and authors. They offer coursework and scholarship in conservative thought and emphasize principles of smaller government, strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values. Furthermore, they avoid trends in academe by continuing to study Western Civilization instead of straying toward the study of Marxism, feminism, sexuality, postmodernism, and other modern distractions that do not give students a complete understanding of our country, our culture, and its founding principles.
Hillsdale College
Grove City College
Franciscan University
Indiana Wesleyan University
Thomas Aquinas College
College of the Ozarks
Liberty University
Patrick Henry College
Christendom College
Harding University
Honorable Mention
2005-2006 Top Ten Conservative Colleges
The listed colleges offer an alternative to the liberal status quo, because they allow and encourage conservative students to explore conservative ideas and authors. They offer coursework and scholarship in conservative thought and emphasize principles of smaller government, strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values. Furthermore, they avoid trends in academe by continuing to study Western Civilization instead of straying toward the study of Marxism, feminism, sexuality, postmodernism, and other modern distractions that do not give students a complete understanding of our country, our culture, and its founding principles.
Hillsdale College
Grove City College
Franciscan University
Indiana Wesleyan University
Thomas Aquinas College
College of the Ozarks
Liberty University
Patrick Henry College
Christendom College
Harding University
Honorable Mention
2005-2006 Top Ten Conservative Colleges
Indiana's Version of Eastern Time
Another grassroots vote for putting Indiana in the central time zone.
Amen Corner >> Blog Archive >> Indiana's Version of Eastern Time
Amen Corner >> Blog Archive >> Indiana's Version of Eastern Time
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Some Events Of Late-April (Indiana time zones)
I found this blog entry interesting for a couple of reasons. First was the "outsider's" perspective on Indiana time zones. Second his/her observations on Wabash College in Crawfordsville were interesting to me since Crawfordsville is less than ten miles north of the little Indiana town where my wife grew up.
A little more white space (paragraphs) would make it a little more to my liking.
White Hat News Group - Weight Watcher Values - Some Events Of Late-April
A little more white space (paragraphs) would make it a little more to my liking.
White Hat News Group - Weight Watcher Values - Some Events Of Late-April
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Our elected baby sitters - Jonetta Rose Barras
Jonetta Rose Barras hits the nail on the head with the following comments:
They're changing diapers and washing bottles in the D.C. Council chamber over at the John A. Wilson Building. Playpens are expected to arrive soon. Twelve of the city's 13 policymakers have morphed into old-fashion, but high-priced, nannies.
Claiming concern for District workers, lawmakers gave preliminary approval this week to a smoking ban in restaurants, bars and taverns. (All will be expected to go smoke-free by January 2007.) The ban comes after a two-year, well-funded battle and the introduction of multiple bills to two different council committees.
Legislators-cum-nannies assume that citizens in the District aren't intelligent or responsible enough to choose for themselves a dining or entertainment establishment that meets their own health standards. They also presume that workers, most of whom are over 18 years old, are incapable of determining when an environment is or isn't safe.
Smoking is a dangerous habit. It didn't take the U.S. surgeon general to provide that warning for me...
Studies have differed on the dangers of secondhand smoke. Statistics can always be manipulated. Whether those reports are true or not is not the issue. The District has more than 200 restaurants and bars - an ample supply - that prohibit smoking. There are numerous others that have significant portions of their establishment sectioned off for nonsmokers. In other words, thinking adults have a choice... Further, if the council is concerned about employment opportunities for those individuals who work in bars or restaurants where there is smoking, it could set up a job-counseling agency...
Washington Examiner: Columns
They're changing diapers and washing bottles in the D.C. Council chamber over at the John A. Wilson Building. Playpens are expected to arrive soon. Twelve of the city's 13 policymakers have morphed into old-fashion, but high-priced, nannies.
Claiming concern for District workers, lawmakers gave preliminary approval this week to a smoking ban in restaurants, bars and taverns. (All will be expected to go smoke-free by January 2007.) The ban comes after a two-year, well-funded battle and the introduction of multiple bills to two different council committees.
Legislators-cum-nannies assume that citizens in the District aren't intelligent or responsible enough to choose for themselves a dining or entertainment establishment that meets their own health standards. They also presume that workers, most of whom are over 18 years old, are incapable of determining when an environment is or isn't safe.
Smoking is a dangerous habit. It didn't take the U.S. surgeon general to provide that warning for me...
Studies have differed on the dangers of secondhand smoke. Statistics can always be manipulated. Whether those reports are true or not is not the issue. The District has more than 200 restaurants and bars - an ample supply - that prohibit smoking. There are numerous others that have significant portions of their establishment sectioned off for nonsmokers. In other words, thinking adults have a choice... Further, if the council is concerned about employment opportunities for those individuals who work in bars or restaurants where there is smoking, it could set up a job-counseling agency...
Washington Examiner: Columns
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Letter to the editor: earliest sunset December 7
Today (December 7) happens to be the earliest sunset of the year in Indianapolis.
A common thread of objection to statewide central time for Indiana is that winter sunsets would be "too early".
After so many years effectively in the wrong time zone from October through April, I suspect that many of us in Indiana have become less aware of the typical winter sunset time at our latitude. The only way to get significantly more evening sunlight is to take it away from those who prefer the benefits of that scarce hour of sunlight in the winter mornings, e.g., for melting snow and ice off vehicles and roads, and burning off any morning fog.
I have shown Fort Wayne, South Bend, Indianapolis, and Terre Haute in the following table twice, to help compare their earliest sunset time with that of several other cities. I concluded that our sunset time is much more in line with comparable areas of the rest of the country on central time than it would be if we remained on eastern.
Before there were standard time zones, the local sunset time on December 7 for Indianapolis (and all points due east and west) was 4:35pm. Determining this median sunset time for our latitude really helped to open my eyes and calibrate me on what sunset time to reasonably expect in Indiana this time of year. Perhaps others will find it as helpful as I did.
With our one-hour-wide time zones, locations in the eastern half of the nearest time zone (like Chicago, Indianapolis, and New York) should experience their earliest sunset from 4:05 to 4:35pm. Conversely, sunset time in the western half of each time zone should range from 4:35 to 5:05pm. The following table confirms that this is exactly how it works out in various cities across the country, and confirms that central time provides a more equitable distribution of our scarce winter sunlight than eastern time would.
SUNSET ON DECEMBER 7
4:05pm, eastern boundary of each time zone
4:12pm, Boston MA
4:12pm, Fort Wayne (central time)
4:14pm, South Bend (central time)
4:20pm, Chicago IL
4:20pm, Indianapolis (central time)
4:26pm, Terre Haute (central time)
4:28pm, New York NY
4:31pm, Evansville IN (central time)
4:35pm, Denver CO
4:35pm, Philadelphia PA
4:35pm, Reno NV
4:40pm, St. Louis MO
4:45pm, Sacramento CA
4:46pm, Washington DC
4:54pm, Youngstown OH
5:05pm, western boundary of each time zone
5:12pm, Fort Wayne (eastern time)
5:14pm, South Bend (eastern time)
5:20pm, Indianapolis (eastern time)
5:26pm, Terre Haute (eastern time)
A common thread of objection to statewide central time for Indiana is that winter sunsets would be "too early".
After so many years effectively in the wrong time zone from October through April, I suspect that many of us in Indiana have become less aware of the typical winter sunset time at our latitude. The only way to get significantly more evening sunlight is to take it away from those who prefer the benefits of that scarce hour of sunlight in the winter mornings, e.g., for melting snow and ice off vehicles and roads, and burning off any morning fog.
I have shown Fort Wayne, South Bend, Indianapolis, and Terre Haute in the following table twice, to help compare their earliest sunset time with that of several other cities. I concluded that our sunset time is much more in line with comparable areas of the rest of the country on central time than it would be if we remained on eastern.
Before there were standard time zones, the local sunset time on December 7 for Indianapolis (and all points due east and west) was 4:35pm. Determining this median sunset time for our latitude really helped to open my eyes and calibrate me on what sunset time to reasonably expect in Indiana this time of year. Perhaps others will find it as helpful as I did.
With our one-hour-wide time zones, locations in the eastern half of the nearest time zone (like Chicago, Indianapolis, and New York) should experience their earliest sunset from 4:05 to 4:35pm. Conversely, sunset time in the western half of each time zone should range from 4:35 to 5:05pm. The following table confirms that this is exactly how it works out in various cities across the country, and confirms that central time provides a more equitable distribution of our scarce winter sunlight than eastern time would.
SUNSET ON DECEMBER 7
4:05pm, eastern boundary of each time zone
4:12pm, Boston MA
4:12pm, Fort Wayne (central time)
4:14pm, South Bend (central time)
4:20pm, Chicago IL
4:20pm, Indianapolis (central time)
4:26pm, Terre Haute (central time)
4:28pm, New York NY
4:31pm, Evansville IN (central time)
4:35pm, Denver CO
4:35pm, Philadelphia PA
4:35pm, Reno NV
4:40pm, St. Louis MO
4:45pm, Sacramento CA
4:46pm, Washington DC
4:54pm, Youngstown OH
5:05pm, western boundary of each time zone
5:12pm, Fort Wayne (eastern time)
5:14pm, South Bend (eastern time)
5:20pm, Indianapolis (eastern time)
5:26pm, Terre Haute (eastern time)
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
sun time matches clock time in Herndon
Having taken a very strong interest in time zones and clocks the last few months due to Indiana's changing time situation, I found it an interesting coincidence to discover that I had arrived at my hotel in Herndon, Virginia yesterday (December 5) on one of the only two days of the year when the sun happens to pass directly overhead here at noon (the other is September 28).
At 77.4 degrees longitude, Herndon is 2.4 degrees west of the middle of the eastern time zone (75 degrees). Thus, its local mean time is about ten minutes behind clock time. However, the correction due to the equation of time exactly cancels out the longitude correction on these two days.
The irony was not lost on me that the closest the clocks in Indianapolis will come to ever reading 12:00 when the sun is overhead if we are on eastern time is 12:28pm on November 23. Worst case falls on July 26, when our clocks will read 1:51pm as the sun passes overhead in 2006.
If we were on central time, the clocks would read approximately 12:00 noon with the sun overhead in Indianapolis on February 11.
At 77.4 degrees longitude, Herndon is 2.4 degrees west of the middle of the eastern time zone (75 degrees). Thus, its local mean time is about ten minutes behind clock time. However, the correction due to the equation of time exactly cancels out the longitude correction on these two days.
The irony was not lost on me that the closest the clocks in Indianapolis will come to ever reading 12:00 when the sun is overhead if we are on eastern time is 12:28pm on November 23. Worst case falls on July 26, when our clocks will read 1:51pm as the sun passes overhead in 2006.
If we were on central time, the clocks would read approximately 12:00 noon with the sun overhead in Indianapolis on February 11.
Frugal Hoosiers: Livin' life by the clock
My reply to the following post:
I don't think it's a secret that there are also a number of Republicans, including me (elected precinct committeeman), who want to see it kept alive just long enough to get at least 95 percent of Indiana's counties into the central zone, where we have been for 7 out of every 12 months the past several decades.
Central time would put Indianapolis clocks within 15 minutes of local mean time five months of the year, give us 45 minutes of extra evening daylight the other seven months (as it has been doing). Eastern would put our clocks a whopping 105 minutes off local time for those same seven months, which a lot of Hoosiers just think is too much.
Frugal Hoosiers: Livin' life by the clock
I don't think it's a secret that there are also a number of Republicans, including me (elected precinct committeeman), who want to see it kept alive just long enough to get at least 95 percent of Indiana's counties into the central zone, where we have been for 7 out of every 12 months the past several decades.
Central time would put Indianapolis clocks within 15 minutes of local mean time five months of the year, give us 45 minutes of extra evening daylight the other seven months (as it has been doing). Eastern would put our clocks a whopping 105 minutes off local time for those same seven months, which a lot of Hoosiers just think is too much.
Frugal Hoosiers: Livin' life by the clock
Masson's Blog: Rep. Torr's letter to the USDOT
Doug makes an excellent point:
By hiding the ball with respect to Eastern Daylight Time, an impression of illegitimacy has been created. Had the legislation specified Daylight Saving Time and designated a preferred time line, then there wouldn't be a great deal to argue about. As Rep. Torr suggests, if the time zone debate been conducted explicitly, it may have failed. True. But too bad. Honorable failure is more respectable than sneaky success. As it is, Rep. Torr's legislation has created a roiling time zone mess. If the Republicans lose seats -- and possibly the House of Representatives over this -- the loss will be based in large part over their failure to be forthright about the time zone issue.
Masson's Blog: Rep. Torr's letter to the USDOT
By hiding the ball with respect to Eastern Daylight Time, an impression of illegitimacy has been created. Had the legislation specified Daylight Saving Time and designated a preferred time line, then there wouldn't be a great deal to argue about. As Rep. Torr suggests, if the time zone debate been conducted explicitly, it may have failed. True. But too bad. Honorable failure is more respectable than sneaky success. As it is, Rep. Torr's legislation has created a roiling time zone mess. If the Republicans lose seats -- and possibly the House of Representatives over this -- the loss will be based in large part over their failure to be forthright about the time zone issue.
Masson's Blog: Rep. Torr's letter to the USDOT
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Evansville CourierPress: Daniels not in favor of Central vs. Eastern time referendum
The Evansville Courier & Press has an article today titled "Daniels not in favor of Central vs. Eastern time referendum".
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_4285801,00.html
Bob Plymire of Evansville has an extensive follow-up comment.
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/courier/03a01time12/
I think the words of a very wise man may apply to Mr. Plymire's comments.
"The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him."
I won't try to comment on everything he wrote. In my opinion, much of it falls into the categories of conjecture and personal preference, including which time zone might better provide for the safety of public school children, which might be better for business, for lowering crime, for saving energy, etc.
I agree with Mr. Plymire that a statewide referendum should be unbiased, perhaps asking for a vote between putting the entire state on central, the entire state on eastern, or just leaving it however the DOT rules next month.
Mr. Plymire writes, "... you usually find those people really don't understand what the differnece [sic] between central and eastern time means... WEll, logicly [sic], if you were to look at a map of time zones, they really had to stretch the time zones to get Indiana to be in the central time zone to begin with. Take a look at a time zone map. If you were to compare it to a worldwide map, Indiana is well withing [sic] the eastern time zone."
First, I'm not sure what map he is looking at, but the U.S. Code defines the time zone locations and names. Title 15, Chapter 6, Subchapter IX, Sections 261 and 264 read, "the standard time of the first zone shall be based on the mean solar time of the sixtieth degree of longitude west from Greenwich; that of the second zone on the seventy-fifth degree; that of the third zone on the ninetieth degree... The standard time of the first zone shall be known and designated as Atlantic standard time; that of the second zone shall be known and designated as eastern standard time; that of the third zone shall be known and designated as central standard time."
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/260.html
From this section of federal law, it is pretty obvious that the middle of the eastern zone runs near Philadelphia. The middle of central is near Peoria or St. Louis. The mid-point between the two (82.5 degrees longitude) bisects Ohio around Mansfield. When I check my Rand McNally Road Atlas, I come to the opposite conclusion from Mr. Plymire. The natural time zone boundary runs very near the eastern borders of Michigan and Kentucky. Contrary to Bob's assertion, I have to conclude that where the real stretch came was getting all of Ohio, most of Michigan, and half of Kentucky into the eastern zone.
I present these facts for the enlightenment of those who wish to try to minimize the emotion in this discussion.
Second, I point out that not all studies of the relationship between health and sunlight conclude that more sunlight at the end of the day is better.
For example, a study titled "Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders" by Dr. Daniel R. Wagner finds, "Exposure to light in the morning is an important and probably a crucial element in the treatment of DSPS [delayed sleep phase syndrome]... [and] Avoidance of bright light (>500 lux) from the late afternoon through the evening is advisable."
http://www.treatment-options.com/article.cfm?PubID=NE01-4-1-03&type=Article
Lee Siegel and Stephanie Watson, in an article for the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah, write, "Some research indicates light therapy is more effective if it is synchronized with a patient's internal clock, which is why some patients are treated with exposure to bright light early in the morning."
http://gslc.genetics.utah.edu/features/clockgenes/
"A 1998 clinical trial showed that morning light treatment was generally more effective than evening light treatment (Terman et.al.1998) although evening treatment was still more effective than placebo."
http://www.bpkids.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7263
Yet another article says, "In those cases where people cannot fall asleep at night and are unable to get out of bed in the morning, exposing them to bright light at the time they should be awakening gradually resets the sleep pattern toward a more normal range. The theory for this is that bright light exposure in the morning shuts off the production of melatonin early and initiates the activity phase of our circadian rhythm cycle."
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/ampr/lightsleep.html
Sincerely, Bill Starr
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Columbus, Indiana (Bartholomew County)
Sat, 3 Dec 2005
Evansville CourierPress: Daniels not in favor of Central vs. Eastern time referendum
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_4285801,00.html
Bob Plymire of Evansville has an extensive follow-up comment.
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/courier/03a01time12/
I think the words of a very wise man may apply to Mr. Plymire's comments.
"The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him."
I won't try to comment on everything he wrote. In my opinion, much of it falls into the categories of conjecture and personal preference, including which time zone might better provide for the safety of public school children, which might be better for business, for lowering crime, for saving energy, etc.
I agree with Mr. Plymire that a statewide referendum should be unbiased, perhaps asking for a vote between putting the entire state on central, the entire state on eastern, or just leaving it however the DOT rules next month.
Mr. Plymire writes, "... you usually find those people really don't understand what the differnece [sic] between central and eastern time means... WEll, logicly [sic], if you were to look at a map of time zones, they really had to stretch the time zones to get Indiana to be in the central time zone to begin with. Take a look at a time zone map. If you were to compare it to a worldwide map, Indiana is well withing [sic] the eastern time zone."
First, I'm not sure what map he is looking at, but the U.S. Code defines the time zone locations and names. Title 15, Chapter 6, Subchapter IX, Sections 261 and 264 read, "the standard time of the first zone shall be based on the mean solar time of the sixtieth degree of longitude west from Greenwich; that of the second zone on the seventy-fifth degree; that of the third zone on the ninetieth degree... The standard time of the first zone shall be known and designated as Atlantic standard time; that of the second zone shall be known and designated as eastern standard time; that of the third zone shall be known and designated as central standard time."
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/260.html
From this section of federal law, it is pretty obvious that the middle of the eastern zone runs near Philadelphia. The middle of central is near Peoria or St. Louis. The mid-point between the two (82.5 degrees longitude) bisects Ohio around Mansfield. When I check my Rand McNally Road Atlas, I come to the opposite conclusion from Mr. Plymire. The natural time zone boundary runs very near the eastern borders of Michigan and Kentucky. Contrary to Bob's assertion, I have to conclude that where the real stretch came was getting all of Ohio, most of Michigan, and half of Kentucky into the eastern zone.
I present these facts for the enlightenment of those who wish to try to minimize the emotion in this discussion.
Second, I point out that not all studies of the relationship between health and sunlight conclude that more sunlight at the end of the day is better.
For example, a study titled "Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders" by Dr. Daniel R. Wagner finds, "Exposure to light in the morning is an important and probably a crucial element in the treatment of DSPS [delayed sleep phase syndrome]... [and] Avoidance of bright light (>500 lux) from the late afternoon through the evening is advisable."
http://www.treatment-options.com/article.cfm?PubID=NE01-4-1-03&type=Article
Lee Siegel and Stephanie Watson, in an article for the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah, write, "Some research indicates light therapy is more effective if it is synchronized with a patient's internal clock, which is why some patients are treated with exposure to bright light early in the morning."
http://gslc.genetics.utah.edu/features/clockgenes/
"A 1998 clinical trial showed that morning light treatment was generally more effective than evening light treatment (Terman et.al.1998) although evening treatment was still more effective than placebo."
http://www.bpkids.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7263
Yet another article says, "In those cases where people cannot fall asleep at night and are unable to get out of bed in the morning, exposing them to bright light at the time they should be awakening gradually resets the sleep pattern toward a more normal range. The theory for this is that bright light exposure in the morning shuts off the production of melatonin early and initiates the activity phase of our circadian rhythm cycle."
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/ampr/lightsleep.html
Sincerely, Bill Starr
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Columbus, Indiana (Bartholomew County)
Sat, 3 Dec 2005
Evansville CourierPress: Daniels not in favor of Central vs. Eastern time referendum
Friday, December 02, 2005
Steve Heim: House Prayer
I just added my comments on the ruling about sectarian prayer in the Indiana Statehouse to Steve Heim's blog.
Steve Heim: House Prayer
Steve Heim: House Prayer
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Canossa: Ken Grant on Gov. Mitch Daniels
Ken Grant writes:
Gov. Mitch Daniels (governor of Indianapolis) decided a number of months ago to wade into the murky time zone reshuffling waters by asking the counties to finally decide just which time zone that they wanted to be in...
Of course, he was rather specific about telling the counties to make up their own minds, and petition the Department of Transportation accordingly...
Well, St. Joseph County, in its somewhat flawed wisdom, decided that they wanted to move to the Central time zone...
Not good enough for the governor of Indianapolis. Nope, our man Mitch decided that the county chose poorly, and has now written to the DOT to encourage them to turn down St. Joseph County's petition to move to Central time. Yes, indeed, the man who triggered the whole bit of nonsense has suddenly realized that some folks actually took him seriously regarding the determination of the time zone.
Can't have that. No sir. Not at all. Gov. Daniels simply could not have folks make their own decisions on an issue wherein he told them to make their own decisions...
Canossa: Political Idiot of the Day - Gov. Mitch Daniels
Gov. Mitch Daniels (governor of Indianapolis) decided a number of months ago to wade into the murky time zone reshuffling waters by asking the counties to finally decide just which time zone that they wanted to be in...
Of course, he was rather specific about telling the counties to make up their own minds, and petition the Department of Transportation accordingly...
Well, St. Joseph County, in its somewhat flawed wisdom, decided that they wanted to move to the Central time zone...
Not good enough for the governor of Indianapolis. Nope, our man Mitch decided that the county chose poorly, and has now written to the DOT to encourage them to turn down St. Joseph County's petition to move to Central time. Yes, indeed, the man who triggered the whole bit of nonsense has suddenly realized that some folks actually took him seriously regarding the determination of the time zone.
Can't have that. No sir. Not at all. Gov. Daniels simply could not have folks make their own decisions on an issue wherein he told them to make their own decisions...
Canossa: Political Idiot of the Day - Gov. Mitch Daniels
Letter to the editor 1 Dec 2005, local time vs clock time
I recently had an e-mail exchange with an Indiana state representatives who strongly favors Eastern time. He wonders why so many people have such a strong preference for having their clocks somewhere near noon when the sun is overhead. This preference seems to be particularly strong among Indiana residents who favor Central time.
We could adjust to just about any time zone if there were some compelling reason to do so. Our whole country could set their clocks to local mean time (aka local time) of Los Angeles, or New York City, or (splitting the difference) even Sioux City, Iowa. For that matter, the whole world could decide to use Greenwich Mean Time.
Most people would figure out a schedule to sleep when it's dark, be awake when it's light, eat breakfast somewhere near sunrise, supper somewhere near sunset, and lunch somewhere in the middle, regardless of what the clocks may say.
There are some places in the world that have actually learned to tolerate having their clocks significantly different from local time like this -- Western China and parts of Alaska, for example.
While I don't have an airtight explanation why so many prefer having their clocks set close to local time, I do see a couple of pieces of evidence that indicate pretty strongly that it is so.
First, when the time zones were instituted in the 1880's, why did they choose one-hour-wide zones? Fewer wider zones might have been even more convenient for commerce. I surmise it was at least partly because many people are willing to set their clocks up to 30 minutes faster or slower than local time for the sake of convenience of commerce, but not a whole lot more. I elaborated on this thought further in my DOT docket comments of 20 November 2005 (tinyurl.com/88nnw).
Second, when I look up "noon" in the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, it says "midday; twelve o'clock in the daytime", indicating that midday and noon are strongly associated. The American Heritage Dictionary reinforces this association with "the time or point in the sun's path at which the sun is on the local meridian; the highest point". The further our clocks deviate from local time, the weaker these traditional associations become, and the more compelling a justification is required.
Granted, dictionary definitions may offer an overly simplistic explanation, but they give substantial empirical evidence of just how deeply ingrained these conventions are in our collective cultural psyche. Anybody who proposes that it's worthwhile to deviate significantly from these norms has a pretty uphill battle cut out for them, as is readily observed in Indiana now.
Making this more specific to Indiana, when Indianapolis last observed Central Standard Time, the clocks were only 15 minutes behind local time (our eastern and western borders are only about 5 minutes different from Indy). When we observed year-round Eastern Standard Time (aka Central Daylight Time), the clocks were only 45 minutes ahead of local time. Although exceeding the 30-minute threshold, this seemed a reasonable compromise to many Hoosiers -- 45 minutes or so of morning sunlight shifted to the evening year-round.
If we observe Eastern Daylight Time in 2006 and 2007, the clocks in Indy will be 105 minutes ahead of local time (110 in Terre Haute) for 7 and 8 months of the year.
This apparently sounds like a near-unequivocal benefit to those who support Eastern time, but, to those who support Central, having the clock so skewed from local time doesn't sound that great at all. Absent a statewide referendum, it's just anybody's educated guess, at best, which view predominates among Hoosiers.
Perhaps this helps to explain why the northwest and southwest counties seem largely content to remain on Central time, why so many other counties have petitioned to join them, and why so many Hoosiers in the rest of the state (based on docket comments and hearing reports) are clamoring for their elected legislators and governor to seize the opportunity in the January 2006 legislative session to petition the DOT to reunite at least 95 percent of Indiana's counties in the Central time zone.
cc: Indiana legislators, Governor Daniels, Mayor Stephen Luecke
We could adjust to just about any time zone if there were some compelling reason to do so. Our whole country could set their clocks to local mean time (aka local time) of Los Angeles, or New York City, or (splitting the difference) even Sioux City, Iowa. For that matter, the whole world could decide to use Greenwich Mean Time.
Most people would figure out a schedule to sleep when it's dark, be awake when it's light, eat breakfast somewhere near sunrise, supper somewhere near sunset, and lunch somewhere in the middle, regardless of what the clocks may say.
There are some places in the world that have actually learned to tolerate having their clocks significantly different from local time like this -- Western China and parts of Alaska, for example.
While I don't have an airtight explanation why so many prefer having their clocks set close to local time, I do see a couple of pieces of evidence that indicate pretty strongly that it is so.
First, when the time zones were instituted in the 1880's, why did they choose one-hour-wide zones? Fewer wider zones might have been even more convenient for commerce. I surmise it was at least partly because many people are willing to set their clocks up to 30 minutes faster or slower than local time for the sake of convenience of commerce, but not a whole lot more. I elaborated on this thought further in my DOT docket comments of 20 November 2005 (tinyurl.com/88nnw).
Second, when I look up "noon" in the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, it says "midday; twelve o'clock in the daytime", indicating that midday and noon are strongly associated. The American Heritage Dictionary reinforces this association with "the time or point in the sun's path at which the sun is on the local meridian; the highest point". The further our clocks deviate from local time, the weaker these traditional associations become, and the more compelling a justification is required.
Granted, dictionary definitions may offer an overly simplistic explanation, but they give substantial empirical evidence of just how deeply ingrained these conventions are in our collective cultural psyche. Anybody who proposes that it's worthwhile to deviate significantly from these norms has a pretty uphill battle cut out for them, as is readily observed in Indiana now.
Making this more specific to Indiana, when Indianapolis last observed Central Standard Time, the clocks were only 15 minutes behind local time (our eastern and western borders are only about 5 minutes different from Indy). When we observed year-round Eastern Standard Time (aka Central Daylight Time), the clocks were only 45 minutes ahead of local time. Although exceeding the 30-minute threshold, this seemed a reasonable compromise to many Hoosiers -- 45 minutes or so of morning sunlight shifted to the evening year-round.
If we observe Eastern Daylight Time in 2006 and 2007, the clocks in Indy will be 105 minutes ahead of local time (110 in Terre Haute) for 7 and 8 months of the year.
This apparently sounds like a near-unequivocal benefit to those who support Eastern time, but, to those who support Central, having the clock so skewed from local time doesn't sound that great at all. Absent a statewide referendum, it's just anybody's educated guess, at best, which view predominates among Hoosiers.
Perhaps this helps to explain why the northwest and southwest counties seem largely content to remain on Central time, why so many other counties have petitioned to join them, and why so many Hoosiers in the rest of the state (based on docket comments and hearing reports) are clamoring for their elected legislators and governor to seize the opportunity in the January 2006 legislative session to petition the DOT to reunite at least 95 percent of Indiana's counties in the Central time zone.
cc: Indiana legislators, Governor Daniels, Mayor Stephen Luecke
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
My DOT post of 30 Nov 2005 supporting Central time for Indiana
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (sun overhead near noon)
=======================================================
I've had a little e-mail exchange with one of the Indiana state representatives who strongly favors eastern time. He wondered why people seem to have such a preference for having their clocks somewhere near noon when the sun is overhead, at least during the shorter winter days. I submitted the following thoughts on this apparent phenomenon, which seems to be particularly strong among those Indiana residents who favor Central time.
Obviously we could adjust to about anything if there were some compelling reason to do so. There's no reason why our whole country couldn't set their clocks to the local mean time of Los Angeles, or New York City, or (splitting the difference) even Sioux City, Iowa. For that matter, the whole world could decide to use Greenwich Mean Time.
Everyone would figure out what time their clock reads in order to sleep when it's dark, be awake when it's light, eat breakfast somewhere near sunrise, supper somewhere near sunset, and lunch somewhere in the middle.
There are even some places in the world that have actually learned to tolerate having their clock time quite a bit different from local time. Western China and parts of Alaska are a couple that come right to mind.
While I'm not sure I can give an objective explanation why most people seem to prefer having their clocks set pretty close to their local mean time, I do see a couple of pieces of evidence that indicate pretty strongly to me that it is so.
First, when the time zones were first conceived and set up, why did the settle on 24 one-hour zones? Fewer wider zones might have been just as, or even more, convenient. I conclude it was at least in part because most people at the time, and I believe probably still today, are willing to set their clocks up to 30 minutes or so faster or slower than their local time for the sake of convenience of commerce, but not a whole lot more. I elaborated on this thought further in the following DOT post.
http://bill-starr.blogspot.com/2005/11/my-dot-post-of-20-nov-2005-supporting.html
Second, when I look up "noon" in my big Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, the first definition is "midday" and the second definition is "twelve o'clock in the daytime". When I look up "noonhour" the definitions are "the hour between 12 noon and 1 p.m." and "lunchtime". When I look up "midday", it says "the middle of the day; noon or the time centering around noon".
Granted, that is somewhat simplistic, but I still think it also gives some pretty strong empirical evidence of just how deeply ingrained these conventions are in our collective cultural psyche. Anybody who decides it's worthwhile to push away from those definitions has a pretty uphill battle cut out for them, as is readily observed in Indiana now.
=======================================================
I've had a little e-mail exchange with one of the Indiana state representatives who strongly favors eastern time. He wondered why people seem to have such a preference for having their clocks somewhere near noon when the sun is overhead, at least during the shorter winter days. I submitted the following thoughts on this apparent phenomenon, which seems to be particularly strong among those Indiana residents who favor Central time.
Obviously we could adjust to about anything if there were some compelling reason to do so. There's no reason why our whole country couldn't set their clocks to the local mean time of Los Angeles, or New York City, or (splitting the difference) even Sioux City, Iowa. For that matter, the whole world could decide to use Greenwich Mean Time.
Everyone would figure out what time their clock reads in order to sleep when it's dark, be awake when it's light, eat breakfast somewhere near sunrise, supper somewhere near sunset, and lunch somewhere in the middle.
There are even some places in the world that have actually learned to tolerate having their clock time quite a bit different from local time. Western China and parts of Alaska are a couple that come right to mind.
While I'm not sure I can give an objective explanation why most people seem to prefer having their clocks set pretty close to their local mean time, I do see a couple of pieces of evidence that indicate pretty strongly to me that it is so.
First, when the time zones were first conceived and set up, why did the settle on 24 one-hour zones? Fewer wider zones might have been just as, or even more, convenient. I conclude it was at least in part because most people at the time, and I believe probably still today, are willing to set their clocks up to 30 minutes or so faster or slower than their local time for the sake of convenience of commerce, but not a whole lot more. I elaborated on this thought further in the following DOT post.
http://bill-starr.blogspot.com/2005/11/my-dot-post-of-20-nov-2005-supporting.html
Second, when I look up "noon" in my big Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, the first definition is "midday" and the second definition is "twelve o'clock in the daytime". When I look up "noonhour" the definitions are "the hour between 12 noon and 1 p.m." and "lunchtime". When I look up "midday", it says "the middle of the day; noon or the time centering around noon".
Granted, that is somewhat simplistic, but I still think it also gives some pretty strong empirical evidence of just how deeply ingrained these conventions are in our collective cultural psyche. Anybody who decides it's worthwhile to push away from those definitions has a pretty uphill battle cut out for them, as is readily observed in Indiana now.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Masson's Blog: Governor Daniels breaks the law
Doug Masson writes:
*** BEGIN QUOTE ***
Governor Daniels is now officially in violation of Ind. Code 1-1-8.1-3 which states:
Sec. 3. The state supports the county executive of any county that seeks to change the time zone in which the county is located under the procedures established by federal law.
The St. Joseph County Commissioners [are] seeking, under the procedures established by federal law, to change the time zone in which St. Joseph County is located. That means the state has to support them in their efforts, right? Well, apparently only if you're of the opinion that Governor Daniels is obliged to obey the law.
Governor Daniels has submitted a letter to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation opposing the St. Joseph County Commissioners' efforts to change time zones. In other words, he is doing exactly the opposite of what the law requires him to do...
Nevermind that he makes bogus statements about the "clear preference" of Hoosiers generally to remain in the Eastern Zone and of Elkhart County residents specifically. The statements are bogus because no mechanism has been made available to most Hoosiers to express their preference. In fact, the Republican leadership has made clear its opposition to a referendum that would put this "clear preference" to the test. Nevermind that he continues his recent insistence that time zones are a "local matter." Nevermind that he forgets his campaign preference for statewide Central Time. Nevermind that he sat on his hands until the eleventh hour before offering an opinion to the public and to the USDOT.
Forget all that stuff for now. He is breaking the law. The Daylight Saving Time bill added a section to the Indiana Code that specifically required the state to support a county executive's efforts to switch time zones. Instead of supporting the St. Joseph County Commissioners, as the law requires, Mitch Daniels is opposing their efforts...
He wasn't ignorant of that provision of the law. His spokesperson was recently asked about it, and offered up an explanation of that provision with which only an illiterate could agree, alleging that the provision required support only of the process not the county executive seeking to change time zones.
He wasn't required to offer his opinion to the USDOT. He could have remained silent and presumably not run afoul of the law. Instead, he went out of his way to violate IC 1-1-8.1-3. Just outrageous. If I were the St. Joseph County Commissioners, I'd be headed to court to seek an injunction of the whole Daylight Saving Time law, delaying its implementation until such time as the Governor corrects his violation or the legislature repeals IC 1-1-8.1-3.
*** END QUOTE ***
Masson's Blog: Governor Daniels breaks the law
*** BEGIN QUOTE ***
Governor Daniels is now officially in violation of Ind. Code 1-1-8.1-3 which states:
Sec. 3. The state supports the county executive of any county that seeks to change the time zone in which the county is located under the procedures established by federal law.
The St. Joseph County Commissioners [are] seeking, under the procedures established by federal law, to change the time zone in which St. Joseph County is located. That means the state has to support them in their efforts, right? Well, apparently only if you're of the opinion that Governor Daniels is obliged to obey the law.
Governor Daniels has submitted a letter to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation opposing the St. Joseph County Commissioners' efforts to change time zones. In other words, he is doing exactly the opposite of what the law requires him to do...
Nevermind that he makes bogus statements about the "clear preference" of Hoosiers generally to remain in the Eastern Zone and of Elkhart County residents specifically. The statements are bogus because no mechanism has been made available to most Hoosiers to express their preference. In fact, the Republican leadership has made clear its opposition to a referendum that would put this "clear preference" to the test. Nevermind that he continues his recent insistence that time zones are a "local matter." Nevermind that he forgets his campaign preference for statewide Central Time. Nevermind that he sat on his hands until the eleventh hour before offering an opinion to the public and to the USDOT.
Forget all that stuff for now. He is breaking the law. The Daylight Saving Time bill added a section to the Indiana Code that specifically required the state to support a county executive's efforts to switch time zones. Instead of supporting the St. Joseph County Commissioners, as the law requires, Mitch Daniels is opposing their efforts...
He wasn't ignorant of that provision of the law. His spokesperson was recently asked about it, and offered up an explanation of that provision with which only an illiterate could agree, alleging that the provision required support only of the process not the county executive seeking to change time zones.
He wasn't required to offer his opinion to the USDOT. He could have remained silent and presumably not run afoul of the law. Instead, he went out of his way to violate IC 1-1-8.1-3. Just outrageous. If I were the St. Joseph County Commissioners, I'd be headed to court to seek an injunction of the whole Daylight Saving Time law, delaying its implementation until such time as the Governor corrects his violation or the legislature repeals IC 1-1-8.1-3.
*** END QUOTE ***
Masson's Blog: Governor Daniels breaks the law
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (short winter days)
Title: Time Zone Boundaries in the State of Indiana
Docket: OST-2005-22114-3843 (as corrected)
RIN 2105-AD53
FR Refence Number: 70 FR 48460
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (short winter days)
==================================================
I was reading Tony O'Neill's November 25 comment to the DOT docket (OST-2005-22114-3559). Tony lives in Indianapolis. As an objection to Central time, Tony says that if he lives in a state where the sun sets at 4pm, he is "out of here". Well, even on Central time, the sun won't set that early in Indianapolis, so this is a bit of a "straw man" argument, but let's take a closer look at this objection anyway, because there are quite a few who seem to feel this way.
I maintain that Tony's issue has more to do with reasonable expectations for living on the 40th parallel than it does with Indiana's time zone.
The shortest day of the year north of the equator is December 21 (winter solstice). At 40 degrees latitude, we only get about 9 hours 20 minutes of daylight. No matter where you live around the world at that latitude, you will only have about 4 hours 40 minutes before midday and the same after. So at the center of any time zone, the sun rises approximately 7:20am and sets approximately 4:40pm. For those east of the nearest center, like Indiana is, sunrise and sunset times are up to 30 minutes earlier. For those to the west, they are up to 30 minutes later.
Since Indianapolis is only about four degrees east of the nearest time zone center, our actual sunrise and sunset times should be about 15 minutes earlier than those at the center. This would be about 7:05am and 4:25pm (ignoring the correction for the equation of time).
It turns out that the earliest sunrise in Indy on Central time is 4:20pm (including the equation of time correction), which matches the approximate calculation very closely.
So, for all of us who choose to live near Indianapolis (or anywhere due east or west of it), physical reality just dictates that we're going to have less than ten hours of daylight from mid-November through late January -- with the attendant winter sunrise and sunset times approximately five hours or less before and after midday.
If Tony O'Neill, or anyone else, comes to realize that they really want more daylight than this in the winter, setting the clock to eastern time doesn't really address the root problem. It only robs an hour from Peter (who prefers to have 4.9 hours of early-January morning sun instead of 3.9) to pay Paul (who wants to stretch his 4.3 hours of early-December evening sun to 5.3).
On Central time, we would have about 0.6 hours more mid-winter sun in the morning than in the evening. On Eastern, we would have about 1.4 hours more sun in the evening than in the morning. Central helps keep the scale a little closer to the center, more equitably dividing our scant hours of winter daylight between those who prefer it in the morning and those who prefer it in the evening.
So for Tony O'Neill, moving to a more southerly state (closer to the equator) is the only way to provide a true increase in winter daylight hours, with corresponding earlier winter sunrises and later sunsets than we have in Indiana.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
1421 N 475 E
COLUMBUS IN 47203-9380
Bartholomew County resident
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Tue, 29 Nov 2005
cc: letter to the editor, Indiana legislators, Governor Daniels
Ref: http://dms.dot.gov/search/document.cfm?documentid=374636&docketid=22114
Ref: http://dms.dot.gov/search/document.cfm?documentid=375009&docketid=22114
Docket: OST-2005-22114-3843 (as corrected)
RIN 2105-AD53
FR Refence Number: 70 FR 48460
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (short winter days)
==================================================
I was reading Tony O'Neill's November 25 comment to the DOT docket (OST-2005-22114-3559). Tony lives in Indianapolis. As an objection to Central time, Tony says that if he lives in a state where the sun sets at 4pm, he is "out of here". Well, even on Central time, the sun won't set that early in Indianapolis, so this is a bit of a "straw man" argument, but let's take a closer look at this objection anyway, because there are quite a few who seem to feel this way.
I maintain that Tony's issue has more to do with reasonable expectations for living on the 40th parallel than it does with Indiana's time zone.
The shortest day of the year north of the equator is December 21 (winter solstice). At 40 degrees latitude, we only get about 9 hours 20 minutes of daylight. No matter where you live around the world at that latitude, you will only have about 4 hours 40 minutes before midday and the same after. So at the center of any time zone, the sun rises approximately 7:20am and sets approximately 4:40pm. For those east of the nearest center, like Indiana is, sunrise and sunset times are up to 30 minutes earlier. For those to the west, they are up to 30 minutes later.
Since Indianapolis is only about four degrees east of the nearest time zone center, our actual sunrise and sunset times should be about 15 minutes earlier than those at the center. This would be about 7:05am and 4:25pm (ignoring the correction for the equation of time).
It turns out that the earliest sunrise in Indy on Central time is 4:20pm (including the equation of time correction), which matches the approximate calculation very closely.
So, for all of us who choose to live near Indianapolis (or anywhere due east or west of it), physical reality just dictates that we're going to have less than ten hours of daylight from mid-November through late January -- with the attendant winter sunrise and sunset times approximately five hours or less before and after midday.
If Tony O'Neill, or anyone else, comes to realize that they really want more daylight than this in the winter, setting the clock to eastern time doesn't really address the root problem. It only robs an hour from Peter (who prefers to have 4.9 hours of early-January morning sun instead of 3.9) to pay Paul (who wants to stretch his 4.3 hours of early-December evening sun to 5.3).
On Central time, we would have about 0.6 hours more mid-winter sun in the morning than in the evening. On Eastern, we would have about 1.4 hours more sun in the evening than in the morning. Central helps keep the scale a little closer to the center, more equitably dividing our scant hours of winter daylight between those who prefer it in the morning and those who prefer it in the evening.
So for Tony O'Neill, moving to a more southerly state (closer to the equator) is the only way to provide a true increase in winter daylight hours, with corresponding earlier winter sunrises and later sunsets than we have in Indiana.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
1421 N 475 E
COLUMBUS IN 47203-9380
Bartholomew County resident
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Tue, 29 Nov 2005
cc: letter to the editor, Indiana legislators, Governor Daniels
Ref: http://dms.dot.gov/search/document.cfm?documentid=374636&docketid=22114
Ref: http://dms.dot.gov/search/document.cfm?documentid=375009&docketid=22114
Monday, November 28, 2005
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Terre Haute TribStar.com :: Daniels leads clumsy DST dance
The editors of the Terre Haute Tribune-Star write:
"In reality, however, the governor's biggest first-year fiasco is one entirely of his own making. It is he who decided Indiana had a problem with its clocks and pushed hard to get daylight-saving time adopted by the Legislature...
"Through underhanded political means and last-minute shenanigans by members of his own party in the Indiana House, Daniels managed to “solve” a problem that really did not exist...
"The governor himself is likely to feel enormous heat on the issue next year during mid-term elections. If his GOP loses control of the House, which it only holds by four seats, he may have only himself and his DST policy to blame. Hoosiers in these parts are ticked off about DST and may decide to express their disgust with the governor at the polls next November...
"What's important is that we reach consensus and stick with it. And because Indianapolis is our capital city and has such a significant influence on Hoosier commerce, the rest of the state would be wise to follow its lead.
"Mitch Daniels may be the guy who screwed this up. But we don't have to make things worse."
*****
While I disagree with their recommendation that the state should follow Indianapolis on the time zone, I do agree that the whole state should be in a single time zone.
For many reasons I have already expressed elsewhere, I believe Indiana should lie entirely in the Central zone.
If Indiana were a wide state and bisected by a time zone boundary, as Ohio is, I might agree that it makes sense for Indiana to be split into two time zones. But east-to-west, we only extend across 3.25 degrees longitude and we fit well within the eastern half of the 15-degree Central standard time zone centered on St. Louis (90 degrees longitude).
Terre Haute, Indiana News :: TribStar.com :: Daniels leads clumsy DST dance
"In reality, however, the governor's biggest first-year fiasco is one entirely of his own making. It is he who decided Indiana had a problem with its clocks and pushed hard to get daylight-saving time adopted by the Legislature...
"Through underhanded political means and last-minute shenanigans by members of his own party in the Indiana House, Daniels managed to “solve” a problem that really did not exist...
"The governor himself is likely to feel enormous heat on the issue next year during mid-term elections. If his GOP loses control of the House, which it only holds by four seats, he may have only himself and his DST policy to blame. Hoosiers in these parts are ticked off about DST and may decide to express their disgust with the governor at the polls next November...
"What's important is that we reach consensus and stick with it. And because Indianapolis is our capital city and has such a significant influence on Hoosier commerce, the rest of the state would be wise to follow its lead.
"Mitch Daniels may be the guy who screwed this up. But we don't have to make things worse."
*****
While I disagree with their recommendation that the state should follow Indianapolis on the time zone, I do agree that the whole state should be in a single time zone.
For many reasons I have already expressed elsewhere, I believe Indiana should lie entirely in the Central zone.
If Indiana were a wide state and bisected by a time zone boundary, as Ohio is, I might agree that it makes sense for Indiana to be split into two time zones. But east-to-west, we only extend across 3.25 degrees longitude and we fit well within the eastern half of the 15-degree Central standard time zone centered on St. Louis (90 degrees longitude).
Terre Haute, Indiana News :: TribStar.com :: Daniels leads clumsy DST dance
Monday, November 21, 2005
Unite Indiana on a single time zone
I sent the following e-mail to the Indiana legislators today.
*****
With Organization Day coming up tomorrow in the General Assembly, I wanted to encourage you to seize this opportunity to pass a law or resolution petitioning the DOT to put the entire state of Indiana back into a single time zone, as we once were. With software and maps needing to be updated anyway to reflect the fact that we now observe Daylight Saving Time, this is a prime opportunity to act to unify the state, perhaps excepting the counties adjoining the Cincinnati and Louisville metropolitan areas which have been observing Eastern Daylight Time.
I support putting the entire state back in its original and natural position in the Central time zone. Supporting this move is the fact that that Indianapolis lies only 205 miles from the center of the Central zone (90 degrees), but is 590 miles from the center of the Eastern zone (75 degrees). Our borders are split about equally between the portions of Illinois and Kentucky observing Central time (394 miles) and the portions of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky observing Eastern (393). From a business perspective, Central puts us at most two hours from every other business in the continental United States versus up to three on Eastern.
From a personal perspective, we were already getting just as much additional summer evening daylight on year-round Central Daylight Time as Boston (exactly one time zone to our east) does on Eastern Daylight. I think the extra hour from observing Daylight Saving Time with most of the rest of the country would be a greater benefit in the winter mornings than it would in the summer evenings, when we already had plenty of daylight shifted from morning to evening.
For example, let's look at July 15, which falls during the Daylight Saving months. In Indianapolis this year on Central Daylight Time (same as Eastern Standard Time), the sunrise was 5:29 and the sunset was 8:12. This is 492 minutes after midday and 391 minutes before, or a net benefit from Daylight Saving Time in the Central zone of 101 minutes. By comparison, sunrise in Boston (Eastern Daylight Time) was 5:21 (399 minutes before midday) and sunset was 8:19 (499 minutes after midday). This gives them a net benefit from Eastern Daylight Saving Time of 100 minutes, virtually the same as we would have on Central Daylight Saving Time.
By comparison on February 11 next year (the non-DST period), if we were on Central time the sunrise in Indianapolis would be 6:42 and sunset 5:16. This is also virtually identical to Boston, one time zone to our east. Their sunrise that day is 6:46 and sunset 5:12. Why should Indiana's sunrise and sunset be that different from those exactly one time zone (15 degrees longitude) to our east?
The time zones are arranged every fifteen degrees longitude so that the winter time in each time zone is pretty close to local apparent time. Based on apparent time, the February 11 sunrise in Indy would be 6:43 (317 minutes before midday) and sunset would be 5:17 (317 minutes after midday), very close to our actual clock time on Central time that day.
If you can't see your way clear in this session to recommend a single time zone for Indiana to the DOT, I urge you to at least support a statewide referendum to obtain a clear measure of public opinion on this issue. Possible options on the referendum could include: 1) leave the time zone border within our state borders, as it is now, subject to individual requests of counties to the DOT, 2) put the entire state on Central time, or 3) put the entire state on Eastern time.
By the way, although I am an elected Republican precinct committeeman, I don't see any credible justification why attempting to seize this limited window of opportunity to reunite virtually the entire state into a single time zone should be a partisan issue.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Columbus, Indiana
Bartholomew County
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Mon, 21 Nov 2005
*****
With Organization Day coming up tomorrow in the General Assembly, I wanted to encourage you to seize this opportunity to pass a law or resolution petitioning the DOT to put the entire state of Indiana back into a single time zone, as we once were. With software and maps needing to be updated anyway to reflect the fact that we now observe Daylight Saving Time, this is a prime opportunity to act to unify the state, perhaps excepting the counties adjoining the Cincinnati and Louisville metropolitan areas which have been observing Eastern Daylight Time.
I support putting the entire state back in its original and natural position in the Central time zone. Supporting this move is the fact that that Indianapolis lies only 205 miles from the center of the Central zone (90 degrees), but is 590 miles from the center of the Eastern zone (75 degrees). Our borders are split about equally between the portions of Illinois and Kentucky observing Central time (394 miles) and the portions of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky observing Eastern (393). From a business perspective, Central puts us at most two hours from every other business in the continental United States versus up to three on Eastern.
From a personal perspective, we were already getting just as much additional summer evening daylight on year-round Central Daylight Time as Boston (exactly one time zone to our east) does on Eastern Daylight. I think the extra hour from observing Daylight Saving Time with most of the rest of the country would be a greater benefit in the winter mornings than it would in the summer evenings, when we already had plenty of daylight shifted from morning to evening.
For example, let's look at July 15, which falls during the Daylight Saving months. In Indianapolis this year on Central Daylight Time (same as Eastern Standard Time), the sunrise was 5:29 and the sunset was 8:12. This is 492 minutes after midday and 391 minutes before, or a net benefit from Daylight Saving Time in the Central zone of 101 minutes. By comparison, sunrise in Boston (Eastern Daylight Time) was 5:21 (399 minutes before midday) and sunset was 8:19 (499 minutes after midday). This gives them a net benefit from Eastern Daylight Saving Time of 100 minutes, virtually the same as we would have on Central Daylight Saving Time.
By comparison on February 11 next year (the non-DST period), if we were on Central time the sunrise in Indianapolis would be 6:42 and sunset 5:16. This is also virtually identical to Boston, one time zone to our east. Their sunrise that day is 6:46 and sunset 5:12. Why should Indiana's sunrise and sunset be that different from those exactly one time zone (15 degrees longitude) to our east?
The time zones are arranged every fifteen degrees longitude so that the winter time in each time zone is pretty close to local apparent time. Based on apparent time, the February 11 sunrise in Indy would be 6:43 (317 minutes before midday) and sunset would be 5:17 (317 minutes after midday), very close to our actual clock time on Central time that day.
If you can't see your way clear in this session to recommend a single time zone for Indiana to the DOT, I urge you to at least support a statewide referendum to obtain a clear measure of public opinion on this issue. Possible options on the referendum could include: 1) leave the time zone border within our state borders, as it is now, subject to individual requests of counties to the DOT, 2) put the entire state on Central time, or 3) put the entire state on Eastern time.
By the way, although I am an elected Republican precinct committeeman, I don't see any credible justification why attempting to seize this limited window of opportunity to reunite virtually the entire state into a single time zone should be a partisan issue.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Columbus, Indiana
Bartholomew County
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Mon, 21 Nov 2005
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Indiana required to support petitioning commissioners
To: "Letter to the Editor"
Doug Masson in his blog articles of November 13 and 15, and Martin DeAgostino in the November 15 South Bend Tribune, reminded me of the easily-overlooked first sentence in Senate Enrolled Act 127 (which Governor Daniels signed into law on May 13, giving Indiana Daylight Saving Time starting April 2006).
This sentence declares the will of the legislature that "the state supports the county executive of any county that seeks to change the time zone in which the county is located..."
As with all other Indiana laws, the governor is bound by our state constitution to take care that it is faithfully executed.
Based on the news reports from the first three of the four DOT hearings in Indiana on the time zones this week, there are obviously quite a few other citizens of Indiana who, like me, favor returning the entire state to its former and natural place in the Central time zone. As the DOT public input process continues, I plan to keep an eye on the governor's faithfulness in executing this statute.
And just in case any question might arise about the definition of the word "supports", my American Heritage Dictionary (Second College Edition) defines it in this context as:
"support: 7. To aid the cause of by approving, favoring, or advocating"
Of course, the legislature could choose to amend or revoke this statute in a future session. Until and unless that occurs, I plan to make the clear meaning of this sentence my measure in gauging how well Governor Daniels supports the commissioners of each of the counties who are petitioning the DOT to be on Central time, obviously including St. Joseph County, and I urge others to do so as well.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Sun, 20 Nov 2005
Ref: http://www.masson.us/blog/archives/2005/11/sb_127_requires.html
Ref: http://www.masson.us/blog/archives/2005/11/support_through.html
Ref: http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2005/11/15/local.20051115-sbt-LOCL-B1-Law_complicates.sto
cc: Governor Daniels, State Representative Luke Messer, State Senator Robert Garton
cc: St. Joseph County Commissioners
Doug Masson in his blog articles of November 13 and 15, and Martin DeAgostino in the November 15 South Bend Tribune, reminded me of the easily-overlooked first sentence in Senate Enrolled Act 127 (which Governor Daniels signed into law on May 13, giving Indiana Daylight Saving Time starting April 2006).
This sentence declares the will of the legislature that "the state supports the county executive of any county that seeks to change the time zone in which the county is located..."
As with all other Indiana laws, the governor is bound by our state constitution to take care that it is faithfully executed.
Based on the news reports from the first three of the four DOT hearings in Indiana on the time zones this week, there are obviously quite a few other citizens of Indiana who, like me, favor returning the entire state to its former and natural place in the Central time zone. As the DOT public input process continues, I plan to keep an eye on the governor's faithfulness in executing this statute.
And just in case any question might arise about the definition of the word "supports", my American Heritage Dictionary (Second College Edition) defines it in this context as:
"support: 7. To aid the cause of by approving, favoring, or advocating"
Of course, the legislature could choose to amend or revoke this statute in a future session. Until and unless that occurs, I plan to make the clear meaning of this sentence my measure in gauging how well Governor Daniels supports the commissioners of each of the counties who are petitioning the DOT to be on Central time, obviously including St. Joseph County, and I urge others to do so as well.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Sun, 20 Nov 2005
Ref: http://www.masson.us/blog/archives/2005/11/sb_127_requires.html
Ref: http://www.masson.us/blog/archives/2005/11/support_through.html
Ref: http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2005/11/15/local.20051115-sbt-LOCL-B1-Law_complicates.sto
cc: Governor Daniels, State Representative Luke Messer, State Senator Robert Garton
cc: St. Joseph County Commissioners
My DOT post of 20 Nov 2005 supporting Central time for Indiana
Title: Time Zone Boundaries in the State of Indiana
Docket: OST-2005-22114
RIN 2105-AD53
FR Refence Number: 70 FR 48460
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (time zone width implications)
The nominal width of each of the 24 standard time zones is 15 degrees. This convention was adopted at the International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC in October 1884 (http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/conference.htm). Based on the initial meridian being at Greenwich, the nominal boundary between the Eastern and Central zones falls about midway east-to-west across Ohio, and down the eastern borders of Michigan and Kentucky. It's pretty obvious which Indiana border lies closer to that. Yes, there would be some pain at one border or the other if our whole state were on a single time zone, but there's clearly more to the choice than just flipping a coin.
The largely unstated implication of 24 one-hour time zones is that most people are willing to tolerate setting their clocks to a standard time that differs a maximum of +/- 30 minutes from their Local Mean Time (LMT), for the convenience of commerce (mainly the railroads in 1884).
If most people were willing to tolerate a 30-to-60-minute difference between their local time and their clock time, then 12 two-hour standard zones would have worked just as well. Continuing the thought, if willing to tolerate a 60-to-90-minute deviation, then 8 three-hour zones would have worked out fine. Likewise, if most people were willing to tolerate a 90-to-120-minute offset between local and clock time, then 6 four-hour zones would have been acceptable.
But, the fact that we got 24 one-hour zones implies to me that the consensus then was that a deviation of more than 30 minutes was unacceptable to the average person. I think this largely still applies today, which is at least partly why we see all of the grassroots support for Central time, now that we'll be observing Daylight Time. We were effectively already on Central time from April through October anyway.
Now let's look at the deviation between local time and clock time for Indiana under the two options for a single time zone for the entire state. On Central time, the offset between local time and clock time is only ten minutes for Terre Haute and 20 minutes for Richmond, both well under the 30-minute standard for a system of 24 one-hour zones.
On Eastern time, the offset between clock time and local time for Terre Haute is 50 minutes in the winter. During the 7 or 8 months of Daylight Saving Time, the offset between local time and clock time for Terre Haute is 110 minutes. If everyone in the continental U.S. were willing to tolerate having their clocks off by 110 minutes from their local time, we could have a single time zone from Maine to California, with everyone's clock set to the local time for Sioux City, Iowa.
Can you imagine the howls from Los Angeles and New York City with a system like that? And yet, both cities would have their clocks set only about +/- 90 minutes from their own local time, less than Terre Haute is being asked to put up with for over half the year, beginning April 2006, if most of Indiana remains on Eastern time.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Sun, 20 Nov 2005
Docket: OST-2005-22114
RIN 2105-AD53
FR Refence Number: 70 FR 48460
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (time zone width implications)
The nominal width of each of the 24 standard time zones is 15 degrees. This convention was adopted at the International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC in October 1884 (http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/conference.htm). Based on the initial meridian being at Greenwich, the nominal boundary between the Eastern and Central zones falls about midway east-to-west across Ohio, and down the eastern borders of Michigan and Kentucky. It's pretty obvious which Indiana border lies closer to that. Yes, there would be some pain at one border or the other if our whole state were on a single time zone, but there's clearly more to the choice than just flipping a coin.
The largely unstated implication of 24 one-hour time zones is that most people are willing to tolerate setting their clocks to a standard time that differs a maximum of +/- 30 minutes from their Local Mean Time (LMT), for the convenience of commerce (mainly the railroads in 1884).
If most people were willing to tolerate a 30-to-60-minute difference between their local time and their clock time, then 12 two-hour standard zones would have worked just as well. Continuing the thought, if willing to tolerate a 60-to-90-minute deviation, then 8 three-hour zones would have worked out fine. Likewise, if most people were willing to tolerate a 90-to-120-minute offset between local and clock time, then 6 four-hour zones would have been acceptable.
But, the fact that we got 24 one-hour zones implies to me that the consensus then was that a deviation of more than 30 minutes was unacceptable to the average person. I think this largely still applies today, which is at least partly why we see all of the grassroots support for Central time, now that we'll be observing Daylight Time. We were effectively already on Central time from April through October anyway.
Now let's look at the deviation between local time and clock time for Indiana under the two options for a single time zone for the entire state. On Central time, the offset between local time and clock time is only ten minutes for Terre Haute and 20 minutes for Richmond, both well under the 30-minute standard for a system of 24 one-hour zones.
On Eastern time, the offset between clock time and local time for Terre Haute is 50 minutes in the winter. During the 7 or 8 months of Daylight Saving Time, the offset between local time and clock time for Terre Haute is 110 minutes. If everyone in the continental U.S. were willing to tolerate having their clocks off by 110 minutes from their local time, we could have a single time zone from Maine to California, with everyone's clock set to the local time for Sioux City, Iowa.
Can you imagine the howls from Los Angeles and New York City with a system like that? And yet, both cities would have their clocks set only about +/- 90 minutes from their own local time, less than Terre Haute is being asked to put up with for over half the year, beginning April 2006, if most of Indiana remains on Eastern time.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Sun, 20 Nov 2005
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Masson's Blog: Jasper Time Zone Hearings
There's an interesting thread of discussion on Indiana's time zone hearings on Doug's blog, including a few comments of my own.
Masson's Blog: Jasper Time Zone Hearings
Masson's Blog: Jasper Time Zone Hearings
My petition for Central time to Bartholomew County commissioners, 15 Aug 2005
The three commissioners of Bartholomew County, Indiana held a hearing for public comment on whether to request a hearing from the U.S. Department of Transportation for a possible change to the Central time zone. The hearing was held on Monday, 15 August 2005. The commissioners voted to stay in whichever time zone Indianapolis chooses, but stopped short of making any recommendation to Marion County of which zone they might prefer.
I realized that I had not posted the comments which I presented in my testimony at this hearing. They follow below.
*****
Thank you for scheduling this opportunity for Bartholomew County residents to express our time zone preference to you.
Now that the legislature and governor have passed the bill putting Indiana on daylight saving time, I prefer that as much of Indiana as possible observe Central time rather than Eastern.
The primary reason for my preference is based on our longitude and the natural time zone boundaries. The natural time zone boundaries are centered on even multiples of 15 degrees longitude around the globe, so that the clocks in every zone read approximately 12:00 when the sun passes overhead at noon. This natural Eastern zone is centered on 75 degrees and the Central zone is centered on 90, with the natural boundary between the two at 82.5 degrees. Based on our longitude, the whole state of Indiana, as well as half of Ohio and virtually all of Michigan and Kentucky fall within the natural boundaries of the Central time zone.
If Indiana remains in the Eastern zone, I understand that we would be the only state in the U.S. that lies completely within the mathematical boundaries of one time zone (Central) and yet observes a different time zone.
Normally, when a community is observing standard time in the winter, the sun would pass overhead within one half hour of 12:00 and when observing daylight saving time in the summer, the sun would pass overhead within one half hour of 1:00. If we are on Central time, this will be the case, but if we are Eastern, the sun will not be overhead until 1:50pm in the afternoon -- giving us effectively double daylight saving time. This would give us a sunset of 9:15pm in late June, with dusk not falling until 9:45pm or so. Conversely for portions of each month from October through January, on Eastern time the sun would not rise until after 8am, based on the expanded Daylight Saving Time period approved by Congress to begin in 2007.
Since Indiana lies well within the longitude range for Central time, we have effectively been observing Central daylight saving time year-round for the past several decades.
The argument may be made that Indiana borders more states that are in the ETZ than the CTZ. This assumption is only partially correct. Michigan, Ohio and part of Kentucky are in the ETZ. Illinois and the western part of Kentucky are in the CTZ. The border distance with states in the ETZ is approximately 400 miles and the CTZ is approximately 390 miles. A difference of only ten miles makes this argument nearly pointless. And, as I pointed out earlier, even those parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky that currently observe eastern time where they border us actually fall within the Central time zone according to their longitude.
Another argument I have heard for Eastern time is that Indiana's time should match that of Washington, D.C., since that is where our legislators work. I don't give this argument much weight. Carried to its logical conclusion, our whole country would be on Eastern time, regardless of how much sense that made to the people of California, Alaska, or Hawaii. This is exactly the situation in Communist China, whose government imposes a single time on the whole country, although the country would fall into five time zones if they followed the natural lines of longitude.
Apparently the Department of Transportation does not give much weight to the common-sense arguments based on longitude, so let us switch to the business rationale for Central time.
The primary selling point that Governor Daniels made for Indiana's switch to daylight saving time was to put Indiana clocks in sync year-round with most of the rest of the United States. From this perspective, either Eastern or Central time would be fine -- we would still change our clocks with the rest of the country twice per year, and always be the same number of hours different from just about anywhere else in the U.S.
And the rest of the country is already accustomed to dealing with Indiana businesses on both Central and Eastern time for about six months of each year, so neither should require more of an adjustment for our business partners than the other.
One advantage to being on Central time year-round is that it would put all Indiana businesses at most two hours away from all our customers and suppliers in the continental U.S., rather than being up to three hours different from the rest of the country on Eastern time. This might serve to expand opportunities for business with those on the west coast, without harming our relations with those on the east coast, who are already accustomed to being one hour ahead of us half the year anyway.
Another argument for Central time is to align ourself most closely with the population center of the country. The mean center of population of the United States is in Missouri, and moving westward with every census.
If we change to Central time, we will continue to enjoy the same additional sunlight in the summer evenings -- about 1.5 hours more evening sun than morning sun each day on average, while gaining one hour additional morning sunlight during most of the school year.
If we stay on Eastern time next summer, our clocks will read between 1:40 and 1:50pm at local noon during this period, giving us about 3.5 hours more evening daylight than morning daylight per day on the average. Personally I would rather have more light in the winter mornings, without losing any of the abundance of summer evening light we already enjoy.
I realized that I had not posted the comments which I presented in my testimony at this hearing. They follow below.
*****
Thank you for scheduling this opportunity for Bartholomew County residents to express our time zone preference to you.
Now that the legislature and governor have passed the bill putting Indiana on daylight saving time, I prefer that as much of Indiana as possible observe Central time rather than Eastern.
The primary reason for my preference is based on our longitude and the natural time zone boundaries. The natural time zone boundaries are centered on even multiples of 15 degrees longitude around the globe, so that the clocks in every zone read approximately 12:00 when the sun passes overhead at noon. This natural Eastern zone is centered on 75 degrees and the Central zone is centered on 90, with the natural boundary between the two at 82.5 degrees. Based on our longitude, the whole state of Indiana, as well as half of Ohio and virtually all of Michigan and Kentucky fall within the natural boundaries of the Central time zone.
If Indiana remains in the Eastern zone, I understand that we would be the only state in the U.S. that lies completely within the mathematical boundaries of one time zone (Central) and yet observes a different time zone.
Normally, when a community is observing standard time in the winter, the sun would pass overhead within one half hour of 12:00 and when observing daylight saving time in the summer, the sun would pass overhead within one half hour of 1:00. If we are on Central time, this will be the case, but if we are Eastern, the sun will not be overhead until 1:50pm in the afternoon -- giving us effectively double daylight saving time. This would give us a sunset of 9:15pm in late June, with dusk not falling until 9:45pm or so. Conversely for portions of each month from October through January, on Eastern time the sun would not rise until after 8am, based on the expanded Daylight Saving Time period approved by Congress to begin in 2007.
Since Indiana lies well within the longitude range for Central time, we have effectively been observing Central daylight saving time year-round for the past several decades.
The argument may be made that Indiana borders more states that are in the ETZ than the CTZ. This assumption is only partially correct. Michigan, Ohio and part of Kentucky are in the ETZ. Illinois and the western part of Kentucky are in the CTZ. The border distance with states in the ETZ is approximately 400 miles and the CTZ is approximately 390 miles. A difference of only ten miles makes this argument nearly pointless. And, as I pointed out earlier, even those parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky that currently observe eastern time where they border us actually fall within the Central time zone according to their longitude.
Another argument I have heard for Eastern time is that Indiana's time should match that of Washington, D.C., since that is where our legislators work. I don't give this argument much weight. Carried to its logical conclusion, our whole country would be on Eastern time, regardless of how much sense that made to the people of California, Alaska, or Hawaii. This is exactly the situation in Communist China, whose government imposes a single time on the whole country, although the country would fall into five time zones if they followed the natural lines of longitude.
Apparently the Department of Transportation does not give much weight to the common-sense arguments based on longitude, so let us switch to the business rationale for Central time.
The primary selling point that Governor Daniels made for Indiana's switch to daylight saving time was to put Indiana clocks in sync year-round with most of the rest of the United States. From this perspective, either Eastern or Central time would be fine -- we would still change our clocks with the rest of the country twice per year, and always be the same number of hours different from just about anywhere else in the U.S.
And the rest of the country is already accustomed to dealing with Indiana businesses on both Central and Eastern time for about six months of each year, so neither should require more of an adjustment for our business partners than the other.
One advantage to being on Central time year-round is that it would put all Indiana businesses at most two hours away from all our customers and suppliers in the continental U.S., rather than being up to three hours different from the rest of the country on Eastern time. This might serve to expand opportunities for business with those on the west coast, without harming our relations with those on the east coast, who are already accustomed to being one hour ahead of us half the year anyway.
Another argument for Central time is to align ourself most closely with the population center of the country. The mean center of population of the United States is in Missouri, and moving westward with every census.
If we change to Central time, we will continue to enjoy the same additional sunlight in the summer evenings -- about 1.5 hours more evening sun than morning sun each day on average, while gaining one hour additional morning sunlight during most of the school year.
If we stay on Eastern time next summer, our clocks will read between 1:40 and 1:50pm at local noon during this period, giving us about 3.5 hours more evening daylight than morning daylight per day on the average. Personally I would rather have more light in the winter mornings, without losing any of the abundance of summer evening light we already enjoy.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
US defends use of phosphorus bombs in Fallujah. 17/11/2005. ABC News Online
Here's a story I first saw reported on a blog in January this year.
US defends use of phosphorus bombs in Fallujah. 17/11/2005. ABC News Online
Iraq Dispatches: Odd Happenings in Fallujah
US defends use of phosphorus bombs in Fallujah. 17/11/2005. ABC News Online
Iraq Dispatches: Odd Happenings in Fallujah
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Masson's Blog: Time zone hearing in Terre Haute
I posted a new thought (for me anyway) on Indiana's time zone dialogue at Doug's blog.
Masson's Blog: Time zone hearing in Terre Haute
Masson's Blog: Time zone hearing in Terre Haute
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Central time better for Hoosier morning golfers
Until recently, I was under the impression that the Indiana golfing community probably uniformly supports Eastern Daylight Time for Indiana, due to the extra hour of evening sunlight from April through October.
So I was pleasantly surprised when one of my friends and coworkers mentioned that he appreciated my recent comments on Indiana's time zone and that he is also an ardent supporter of Central time, due to his passion for golf.
It turns out that he is one of a group of twelve or so golfers who enjoy playing nine holes together before work Friday mornings from March to September. My friend particularly likes this time slot because he can enjoy his golf and socializing at a time when his family is still asleep, thereby avoiding taking time away from his three young children, as evening golf would do.
They find that they can tee off about 30 minutes before sunrise and still tell which way the first drive is heading. With the sun rising here about 5:15 in mid-June on Central Daylight Time, they have been able to get on the course as early as 4:45, allowing them to get to the office by 7:00 or so. Even with a sunrise as late as 6:30 in March or September, they can still be at work by about 8:15.
With Eastern Daylight Time (if they continue to limit themselves to days when the sun rises before 6:30, in order to arrive at work at a decent hour) their usable pre-work golf season is shortened from about 25 to 9 weeks (mid-May through mid-July). I can see why that would give an avid golfer heartburn.
*****
Submitted to DOT Docket OST-2005-22114 and as a letter to the editor.
Published in "The Republic" (Columbus, Indiana) Monday, 14 Nov 2005.
So I was pleasantly surprised when one of my friends and coworkers mentioned that he appreciated my recent comments on Indiana's time zone and that he is also an ardent supporter of Central time, due to his passion for golf.
It turns out that he is one of a group of twelve or so golfers who enjoy playing nine holes together before work Friday mornings from March to September. My friend particularly likes this time slot because he can enjoy his golf and socializing at a time when his family is still asleep, thereby avoiding taking time away from his three young children, as evening golf would do.
They find that they can tee off about 30 minutes before sunrise and still tell which way the first drive is heading. With the sun rising here about 5:15 in mid-June on Central Daylight Time, they have been able to get on the course as early as 4:45, allowing them to get to the office by 7:00 or so. Even with a sunrise as late as 6:30 in March or September, they can still be at work by about 8:15.
With Eastern Daylight Time (if they continue to limit themselves to days when the sun rises before 6:30, in order to arrive at work at a decent hour) their usable pre-work golf season is shortened from about 25 to 9 weeks (mid-May through mid-July). I can see why that would give an avid golfer heartburn.
*****
Submitted to DOT Docket OST-2005-22114 and as a letter to the editor.
Published in "The Republic" (Columbus, Indiana) Monday, 14 Nov 2005.
My editorial of 16 Oct 2005 on Indiana's time zone
I get a sense sometimes in reading the various arguments from champions of Eastern and Central time for Indiana that the Eastern advocates don't really understand why living on year-round Eastern time seems so extreme to Central backers.
I think an analogy might help explain it.
U.S. Code (Title 15, Chapter 6, Subchapter IX, Sections 261 and 263) defines the standard time of the Eastern zone as the mean solar time (MST) of the 75th degree of longitude and that of Central as the MST of the 90th degree.
I think most people would agree that the thought of putting Buffalo, New York on Central time sounds pretty outlandish. Buffalo is 11.1 degrees (565 miles) east of the middle of the Central standard time zone (which runs approximately through Peoria, Illinois). The sun rises and sets in Buffalo approximately 45 minutes earlier than at the middle of the Central time zone, but only 15 minutes later than the middle of the Eastern zone.
But Indianapolis is in almost exactly the reverse situation. It lies 11.1 degrees (590 miles) west of the middle of the Eastern standard time zone (which runs approximately through Philadelphia). The sun rises and sets in Indianapolis approximately 45 minutes later than at the middle of the Eastern time zone, but only 15 minutes earlier than the middle of the Central zone.
So to Central advocates like me, Indiana's observing Central time looks about as sensible as leaving Buffalo on Eastern time. And conversely, leaving Indiana on Eastern looks about as ludicrous as moving Buffalo to the Central zone. Indianapolis lies about as far from the center of the Eastern zone as Buffalo is from the center of the Central zone.
Continuing to have the extra hour of evening sunlight 7 or 8 months of the year on Central Daylight Saving Time (to which we have been accustomed) sounds fine to me -- but not an extra hour beyond that by observing Daylight Saving Time on top of being one time zone to the east of our natural location.
Some Eastern supporters have correctly pointed out that winter sunrises (November through March) on Eastern time would be the same time as we have been used to for decades. This is accurate, as far as it goes. But central Indiana has been used to having the sun rise earlier than 7:15am until the first week of November. With Eastern Daylight Time, the sun begins to rise later than 7:15am the first week of September -- two months earlier. At the other end of winter, we have been accustomed to having the sun start rising earlier than 6:30am at the end of March. With Eastern Daylight Time, we would have to wait about 1½ months longer -- until mid-May -- to see the sun rise before 6:30am.
For people, like my wife, who enjoy getting an early start on the day with a morning walk in a country neighborhood with no street lights, being on Eastern Daylight Time means losing an hour of morning sunlight for safer walking these 3½ months in the spring and fall, compared to what they have been used to and would still have with Central Daylight time.
Evansville Courier & Press, 19 Oct 2005
Also published as a Letter to the Editor in "The Republic", Columbus, Indiana, Sat, 22 Oct 2005.
I think an analogy might help explain it.
U.S. Code (Title 15, Chapter 6, Subchapter IX, Sections 261 and 263) defines the standard time of the Eastern zone as the mean solar time (MST) of the 75th degree of longitude and that of Central as the MST of the 90th degree.
I think most people would agree that the thought of putting Buffalo, New York on Central time sounds pretty outlandish. Buffalo is 11.1 degrees (565 miles) east of the middle of the Central standard time zone (which runs approximately through Peoria, Illinois). The sun rises and sets in Buffalo approximately 45 minutes earlier than at the middle of the Central time zone, but only 15 minutes later than the middle of the Eastern zone.
But Indianapolis is in almost exactly the reverse situation. It lies 11.1 degrees (590 miles) west of the middle of the Eastern standard time zone (which runs approximately through Philadelphia). The sun rises and sets in Indianapolis approximately 45 minutes later than at the middle of the Eastern time zone, but only 15 minutes earlier than the middle of the Central zone.
So to Central advocates like me, Indiana's observing Central time looks about as sensible as leaving Buffalo on Eastern time. And conversely, leaving Indiana on Eastern looks about as ludicrous as moving Buffalo to the Central zone. Indianapolis lies about as far from the center of the Eastern zone as Buffalo is from the center of the Central zone.
Continuing to have the extra hour of evening sunlight 7 or 8 months of the year on Central Daylight Saving Time (to which we have been accustomed) sounds fine to me -- but not an extra hour beyond that by observing Daylight Saving Time on top of being one time zone to the east of our natural location.
Some Eastern supporters have correctly pointed out that winter sunrises (November through March) on Eastern time would be the same time as we have been used to for decades. This is accurate, as far as it goes. But central Indiana has been used to having the sun rise earlier than 7:15am until the first week of November. With Eastern Daylight Time, the sun begins to rise later than 7:15am the first week of September -- two months earlier. At the other end of winter, we have been accustomed to having the sun start rising earlier than 6:30am at the end of March. With Eastern Daylight Time, we would have to wait about 1½ months longer -- until mid-May -- to see the sun rise before 6:30am.
For people, like my wife, who enjoy getting an early start on the day with a morning walk in a country neighborhood with no street lights, being on Eastern Daylight Time means losing an hour of morning sunlight for safer walking these 3½ months in the spring and fall, compared to what they have been used to and would still have with Central Daylight time.
Evansville Courier & Press, 19 Oct 2005
Also published as a Letter to the Editor in "The Republic", Columbus, Indiana, Sat, 22 Oct 2005.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Bleachers no place for smokers
The following letter (except for the last paragraph) ran in "The Republic" (Columbus, Indiana) on Sunday, 30 October 2005.
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 09:15:36 -0500
To: "John Harmon -- letter to the editor"
Subject: Letter to the editor ("Clean air at Lincoln Park too?")
I remain opposed on principle to a legislative ban on smoking in private business establishments in Columbus.
However, as I read in today's paper about the upcoming ban on smoking in public places in Columbus, I have to admit that it has crossed my mind several times this summer, while watching my family play softball at Lincoln Park, how much more pleasant it would be to be able to breathe clean air in the city park without trying to hunt down a seat in the bleachers upwind from the smokers.
Now there's a place where the Columbus City Council probably actually has legitimate jurisdiction over smoking.
And if you buy all of the arguments about the deleterious effects of secondhand smoke, it would also be a bold stroke for public health on behalf of infants, children, and adult spectators in the stands at the park.
(Once the genie [ of nanny government ] is out of the bottle, it's hard to put him back.)
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 09:15:36 -0500
To: "John Harmon -- letter to the editor"
Subject: Letter to the editor ("Clean air at Lincoln Park too?")
I remain opposed on principle to a legislative ban on smoking in private business establishments in Columbus.
However, as I read in today's paper about the upcoming ban on smoking in public places in Columbus, I have to admit that it has crossed my mind several times this summer, while watching my family play softball at Lincoln Park, how much more pleasant it would be to be able to breathe clean air in the city park without trying to hunt down a seat in the bleachers upwind from the smokers.
Now there's a place where the Columbus City Council probably actually has legitimate jurisdiction over smoking.
And if you buy all of the arguments about the deleterious effects of secondhand smoke, it would also be a bold stroke for public health on behalf of infants, children, and adult spectators in the stands at the park.
(Once the genie [ of nanny government ] is out of the bottle, it's hard to put him back.)
Thursday, October 13, 2005
My time zone letter ran in The Republic (Columbus, Indiana)
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 00:15:17 -0500 (published Thursday, 13 October 2005)
To: "Harmon John -- letter to the editor"
Subject: Favor Central Time
I still favor the DOT putting all of Indiana into a single time zone. Central still appears to be the best choice to me.
Eastern proponents prefer to have the latest sunset (nominally 7:32 pm) extended 103 minutes later than Local Mean Time (LMT) to 9:15 pm and prefer to have the earliest sunset in December no earlier than 5:20 pm. They value these later sunset times enough to tolerate having the sunrise extended to as late as 8:15 am just before we go back to standard time for the winter in early November (starting 2007).
On the other hand, most Central proponents value either an earlier winter morning sunrise, a not quite so late summer sunset, or both, and therefore prefer a more modest 43-minute extension of the latest sunset (compared to LMT) from 7:32 pm to 8:15pm (as we have had with year-round EST / CDT since the 1960's). To achieve this, they are willing to tolerate sunsets as early as 4:20 pm in December.
There is not really a right or wrong side. It primarily comes down to individual preference and would perhaps best be decided by some sort of statewide referendum.
I see the major benefit of Daylight Saving Time (DST) to Indiana commerce as not primarily due to a specific time zone into which the DOT could decide to put Indiana, but as primarily due to almost everyone else in the U.S. always knowing exactly how many hours different their time is from any given city in Indiana.
With about 394 miles of Indiana bordering the Central time portions of Illinois and Kentucky and about 393 miles bordering the Eastern time portions of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky, there would be approximately as many people having to adjust to having neighbors an hour different across the state line whether Indiana were placed entirely on Central or Eastern, so I don't see that as a significant factor favoring either time zone.
Business in the rest of the country is already accustomed to dealing with Indiana on Central Daylight during the 7 summer months of the year and on Eastern Standard the remaining 5 months, so year-round Central should require a slightly smaller adjustment for our business partners than year-round Eastern.
Being on Central time would serve the convenience of commerce by putting Indiana at most two hours away from all businesses in the continental U.S., rather than being up to three hours different from the west coast on Eastern time.
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce points out that 39 percent of Indiana's exports are with states that observe Eastern time. This implies that the remaining 61 percent is with states that lie west of Indiana, with whom our time difference would be one hour less on Central time.
Regardless of which time zone the state may end up in, individual business executives are still free to operate their businesses on whichever schedule provides the greatest competitive advantage, as they always have been. It is already common practice to ask employees to plan their work week around a very early or very late conference call with a business several time zones away.
Some Eastern proponents express concern that it might not seem worthwhile to observe DST if Indiana is on Central time. This is a valid question that deserves evaluation. Let us compare Indianapolis with other cities across the country that are about midway between the middle and eastern edge of a standard time zone, like Indiana.
Indianapolis is about 15 minutes earlier than the center (90 degrees) of the nearest standard time zone. Other major U.S. cities which are also located 10 to 20 minutes east of their nearest standard time zone meridian include Spokane WA (10 minutes), Nashville TN (13), Boston (16), and Las Vegas (19).
The most benefit from DST is received in late July, when the sun passes overhead the latest in the day, and the maximum shift of sunlight occurs from before noon to after. The accompanying table shows how many more minutes of daylight are received after noon than before. As the table shows, Indianapolis would receive approximately as much benefit from DST on Central Time as these other similarly-situated cities.
The benefit received by Indiana from DST on Central time is nearly identical to that received by Boston on Eastern time (which lies almost exactly one standard time zone to our east). We don't hear about Boston's residents asking to be in the next time zone to their east (Atlantic Time) because they don't think they get enough benefit from DST.
The Republic
To: "Harmon John -- letter to the editor"
Subject: Favor Central Time
I still favor the DOT putting all of Indiana into a single time zone. Central still appears to be the best choice to me.
Eastern proponents prefer to have the latest sunset (nominally 7:32 pm) extended 103 minutes later than Local Mean Time (LMT) to 9:15 pm and prefer to have the earliest sunset in December no earlier than 5:20 pm. They value these later sunset times enough to tolerate having the sunrise extended to as late as 8:15 am just before we go back to standard time for the winter in early November (starting 2007).
On the other hand, most Central proponents value either an earlier winter morning sunrise, a not quite so late summer sunset, or both, and therefore prefer a more modest 43-minute extension of the latest sunset (compared to LMT) from 7:32 pm to 8:15pm (as we have had with year-round EST / CDT since the 1960's). To achieve this, they are willing to tolerate sunsets as early as 4:20 pm in December.
There is not really a right or wrong side. It primarily comes down to individual preference and would perhaps best be decided by some sort of statewide referendum.
I see the major benefit of Daylight Saving Time (DST) to Indiana commerce as not primarily due to a specific time zone into which the DOT could decide to put Indiana, but as primarily due to almost everyone else in the U.S. always knowing exactly how many hours different their time is from any given city in Indiana.
With about 394 miles of Indiana bordering the Central time portions of Illinois and Kentucky and about 393 miles bordering the Eastern time portions of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky, there would be approximately as many people having to adjust to having neighbors an hour different across the state line whether Indiana were placed entirely on Central or Eastern, so I don't see that as a significant factor favoring either time zone.
Business in the rest of the country is already accustomed to dealing with Indiana on Central Daylight during the 7 summer months of the year and on Eastern Standard the remaining 5 months, so year-round Central should require a slightly smaller adjustment for our business partners than year-round Eastern.
Being on Central time would serve the convenience of commerce by putting Indiana at most two hours away from all businesses in the continental U.S., rather than being up to three hours different from the west coast on Eastern time.
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce points out that 39 percent of Indiana's exports are with states that observe Eastern time. This implies that the remaining 61 percent is with states that lie west of Indiana, with whom our time difference would be one hour less on Central time.
Regardless of which time zone the state may end up in, individual business executives are still free to operate their businesses on whichever schedule provides the greatest competitive advantage, as they always have been. It is already common practice to ask employees to plan their work week around a very early or very late conference call with a business several time zones away.
Some Eastern proponents express concern that it might not seem worthwhile to observe DST if Indiana is on Central time. This is a valid question that deserves evaluation. Let us compare Indianapolis with other cities across the country that are about midway between the middle and eastern edge of a standard time zone, like Indiana.
Indianapolis is about 15 minutes earlier than the center (90 degrees) of the nearest standard time zone. Other major U.S. cities which are also located 10 to 20 minutes east of their nearest standard time zone meridian include Spokane WA (10 minutes), Nashville TN (13), Boston (16), and Las Vegas (19).
The most benefit from DST is received in late July, when the sun passes overhead the latest in the day, and the maximum shift of sunlight occurs from before noon to after. The accompanying table shows how many more minutes of daylight are received after noon than before. As the table shows, Indianapolis would receive approximately as much benefit from DST on Central Time as these other similarly-situated cities.
The benefit received by Indiana from DST on Central time is nearly identical to that received by Boston on Eastern time (which lies almost exactly one standard time zone to our east). We don't hear about Boston's residents asking to be in the next time zone to their east (Atlantic Time) because they don't think they get enough benefit from DST.
| City | More minutes pm than am |
| Las Vegas | 94 |
| Boston | 101 |
| Indy (Central) | 102 |
| Nashville TN | 107 |
| Spokane WA | 112 |
| Indy (Eastern) | 222 |
The Republic
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Not Yours to Give
Words of wisdom from Congressman Dave Crockett and constituent Horatio Bunce:
Originally published in "The Life of Colonel David Crockett," by Edward Sylvester Ellis.
we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member on this floor knows it.
We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money...
We cannot without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please...
the Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred, and rigidly observed in all its provisions. The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the honest he is...
In the first place, the government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man...
there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he.
If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give at all; and as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. 'No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity.
'Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose...
'The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.
'So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people...
There are in that House many very wealthy men - men who think nothing of spending a week's pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made beautiful speeches upon... the insignificance and worthlessness of money... Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it.
Not Yours to Give
Originally published in "The Life of Colonel David Crockett," by Edward Sylvester Ellis.
we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member on this floor knows it.
We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money...
We cannot without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please...
the Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred, and rigidly observed in all its provisions. The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the honest he is...
In the first place, the government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man...
there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he.
If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give at all; and as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. 'No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity.
'Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose...
'The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.
'So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people...
There are in that House many very wealthy men - men who think nothing of spending a week's pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made beautiful speeches upon... the insignificance and worthlessness of money... Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it.
Not Yours to Give
Sunday, October 02, 2005
My DOT post of 2 Oct 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana
Title: Time Zone Boundaries in the State of Indiana
Docket: OST-2005-22114
- dms.dot.gov/search/searchResultsSimple.cfm?numberValue=22114&searchType=docket
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (supplement)
===========================================
From following the time zone issue, I think some people probably have a hard time putting Indiana's geographic location into perspective, as it relates to our time zone.
Chris's post of 23 September 2005 (OST-2005-22114-445) gave me an idea of how to put this into very simple terms.
Indianapolis is 11.3 degrees west of the Eastern time zone meridian. Buffalo, New York is 11.3 degrees east of the Central meridian. Given our geographic location, putting Indiana on Eastern time makes about as much sense as putting Buffalo on Central.
Howard Trexler, columnist for the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, has recently made note of the five-week extension of Daylight Saving Time coming up in 2007, and its implications for late sunrises the first week of March and November.
Now might be the time for Central Standard
Based on sunrises as late as 7:48 in March and 7:46 in November, he proposed in July that the Florida legislature consider exempting itself from Daylight Saving Time (sounds familiar). But now, Trexler reports, Jeff Stabins, county commissioner and former Florida state legislator, has proposed moving the entire state of Florida to Central time.
"After all, Stabins points out, part of Florida's Panhandle already lies in the Central zone. We would be unifying our state, while putting the sunrise back where it ought to be." (sounds familiar too)
St. Petersburg, at 82.7 degrees, is the same longitude as central Ohio (also 82.7). Florida, like Ohio, is bisected by the 82.5-degree midpoint between the Eastern and Central standard meridians.
Trexler's proposal is analogous to a columnist from Columbus, Ohio proposing that the whole state of Ohio should consider observing Central time in order to avoid these extreme late sunrises when Daylight Saving Time is extended, starting 2007.
If Trexler thinks 7:46 and 7:48 am sunrise in St. Petersburg sounds extreme, just imagine how he would feel about 8:07 or 8:20 am those same two days in Indianapolis on Eastern Daylight Time.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
Sun, 2 Oct 2005
Document OST-2005-22114-496
Docket: OST-2005-22114
- dms.dot.gov/search/searchResultsSimple.cfm?numberValue=22114&searchType=docket
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (supplement)
===========================================
From following the time zone issue, I think some people probably have a hard time putting Indiana's geographic location into perspective, as it relates to our time zone.
Chris's post of 23 September 2005 (OST-2005-22114-445) gave me an idea of how to put this into very simple terms.
Indianapolis is 11.3 degrees west of the Eastern time zone meridian. Buffalo, New York is 11.3 degrees east of the Central meridian. Given our geographic location, putting Indiana on Eastern time makes about as much sense as putting Buffalo on Central.
Howard Trexler, columnist for the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, has recently made note of the five-week extension of Daylight Saving Time coming up in 2007, and its implications for late sunrises the first week of March and November.
Now might be the time for Central Standard
Based on sunrises as late as 7:48 in March and 7:46 in November, he proposed in July that the Florida legislature consider exempting itself from Daylight Saving Time (sounds familiar). But now, Trexler reports, Jeff Stabins, county commissioner and former Florida state legislator, has proposed moving the entire state of Florida to Central time.
"After all, Stabins points out, part of Florida's Panhandle already lies in the Central zone. We would be unifying our state, while putting the sunrise back where it ought to be." (sounds familiar too)
St. Petersburg, at 82.7 degrees, is the same longitude as central Ohio (also 82.7). Florida, like Ohio, is bisected by the 82.5-degree midpoint between the Eastern and Central standard meridians.
Trexler's proposal is analogous to a columnist from Columbus, Ohio proposing that the whole state of Ohio should consider observing Central time in order to avoid these extreme late sunrises when Daylight Saving Time is extended, starting 2007.
If Trexler thinks 7:46 and 7:48 am sunrise in St. Petersburg sounds extreme, just imagine how he would feel about 8:07 or 8:20 am those same two days in Indianapolis on Eastern Daylight Time.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
Sun, 2 Oct 2005
Document OST-2005-22114-496
My DOT post of 18 Sep 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana
Title: Time Zone Boundaries in the State of Indiana
Docket: OST-2005-22114-401
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (supplement)
===========================================
I just wanted to add one more little bit of data for your consideration in deciding whether to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on any proposed time zone changes for Indiana.
The following table compares the earliest summer sunrise and earliest winter sunset times for Indianapolis with several other major cities approximately evenly spaced across the U.S., which also fall between the 38th and 42nd parallels (lines of latitude) like Indiana.
I have shown two entries for Indianapolis, illustrating where we would fall in the range depending on the time zone to which Indiana is eventually assigned.
As you can see, if Indiana remains in the Eastern Time Zone when we begin to observe Daylight Saving Time, our earliest summer sunrise and winter sunset would be 13-to-66 minutes later than all of these other major cities at our latitude.
Whereas if we are moved back to the Central Time Zone, we are near the early end of the range (although not the earliest), but still within 0-to-47 minutes of all of the other cities in this list.
City Earliest sunrise (mid-June) Earliest sunset (early Dec)
==== =========================== ===========================
Providence RI 5:10am 4:15pm
Chicago 5:15am 4:20pm
Indy (Central) 5:16am 4:20pm
New York 5:24am 4:28pm
Denver 5:31am 4:35pm
Reno NV 5:31am 4:35pm
Saint Louis MO 5:36am 4:40pm
Sacramento CA 5:41am 4:45pm
Washington DC 5:42am 4:46pm
Pittsburgh PA 5:49am 4:53pm
Kansas City MO 5:52am 4:56pm
Salt Lake City UT 5:56am 5:00pm
Columbus OH 6:03am 5:07pm
Indy (Eastern) 6:16am 5:20pm
Ref: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.html (U.S. Naval Observatory sunrise/set times)
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
Sun, 18 Sep 2005
My DOT post of 18 Sep 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana
Docket: OST-2005-22114-401
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (supplement)
===========================================
I just wanted to add one more little bit of data for your consideration in deciding whether to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on any proposed time zone changes for Indiana.
The following table compares the earliest summer sunrise and earliest winter sunset times for Indianapolis with several other major cities approximately evenly spaced across the U.S., which also fall between the 38th and 42nd parallels (lines of latitude) like Indiana.
I have shown two entries for Indianapolis, illustrating where we would fall in the range depending on the time zone to which Indiana is eventually assigned.
As you can see, if Indiana remains in the Eastern Time Zone when we begin to observe Daylight Saving Time, our earliest summer sunrise and winter sunset would be 13-to-66 minutes later than all of these other major cities at our latitude.
Whereas if we are moved back to the Central Time Zone, we are near the early end of the range (although not the earliest), but still within 0-to-47 minutes of all of the other cities in this list.
City Earliest sunrise (mid-June) Earliest sunset (early Dec)
==== =========================== ===========================
Providence RI 5:10am 4:15pm
Chicago 5:15am 4:20pm
Indy (Central) 5:16am 4:20pm
New York 5:24am 4:28pm
Denver 5:31am 4:35pm
Reno NV 5:31am 4:35pm
Saint Louis MO 5:36am 4:40pm
Sacramento CA 5:41am 4:45pm
Washington DC 5:42am 4:46pm
Pittsburgh PA 5:49am 4:53pm
Kansas City MO 5:52am 4:56pm
Salt Lake City UT 5:56am 5:00pm
Columbus OH 6:03am 5:07pm
Indy (Eastern) 6:16am 5:20pm
Ref: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.html (U.S. Naval Observatory sunrise/set times)
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
Sun, 18 Sep 2005
My DOT post of 18 Sep 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana
My DOT post of 16 Sep 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana
Title: Time Zone Boundaries in the State of Indiana
Docket: OST-2005-22114-391
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (supplement)
===========================================
I think it is helpful to make one final wrap-up of what I see as the pros and cons of Central time versus Eastern time.
The baseline to which I mentally compare our two alternative time zones is Indianapolis local mean time (LMT).
There is a pretty good definition of LMT at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_mean_time". This page defines LMT in part as follows. "Local mean time was used from the early nineteenth century... until standard time was adopted..."
In other words LMT is the time Indianapolis would have observed before the the U.S. Standard Time Act first established the four continental U.S. standard time zones in 1918. LMT is similar to apparent local time, but corrected for the inherent 15-minute-per-year or so variation of the sun's east-to-west position in the sky.
With LMT and without any daylight time, the earliest sunrise of the year in Indianapolis would be 4:32 am about June 14. The latest sunrise would be 7:22 am about January 5. The earliest sunset would be 4:35 pm about December 7 and the latest sunset would be 7:32 pm about June 28. These are the baselines against which we compare the shift in time by observing Central or Eastern standard time.
I perceive that the major benefit of Daylight Saving Time (DST) to Indiana commerce is not due to the specific time zone into which the DOT decides to put Indiana, but is primarily due to nearly all of Indiana being on a single time, and everyone else in the U.S. who observes DST always knowing exactly how many hours different their time is from any particular city in Indiana. If the DOT ends up putting all, or nearly all, of Indiana in a single zone, this would obviously make it even easier for anyone in the U.S. to know the time almost anywhere in Indiana any day of the year.
With about 394 miles of Indiana bordering the Central time portions of Illinois and Kentucky and about 393 miles bordering the Eastern time portions of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky, there are going to be approximately as many people having to adjust to having neighbors across the state line on a different time whether Indiana is on Central or Eastern, so I don't think that is a significant factor favoring either time zone.
I believe that so many Hoosiers feel so strongly about the time because with our particular north-south latitude we have such a wide variation in the amount of sunlight over the course of a year. At the summer solstice (about June 21), the longest day is about 14.99 hours in Indianapolis. At the winter solstice (about December 22), the shortest day is only 9.35 hours. This is about 5½ more hours of daylight to figure out how to distribute most conveniently in June compared to December, when we start being concerned about people getting safely to their destinations in the morning or evening darkness or dusk.
Although couched in the preferred DOT criteria of "convenience of commerce", I believe that a lot of the passion on the issue, particularly away from the border counties of the state, mainly comes down to the following individual preference.
The Eastern proponents prefer to have the latest sunset (nominally 7:32 pm) extended 103 minutes later than LMT to 9:15 pm and prefer to have the earliest sunset in December no earlier than 5:20 pm. They value these later sunset times enough to tolerate having the sunrise extended those same 103 minutes to as late as 8:15 am just before we go back to standard time for the winter in early November (starting 2007).
On the other hand, I believe most Central proponents value either a not quite so late winter morning sunrise, a not quite so late summer sunset, or both, and therefore prefer a more modest 43-minute extension of the latest sunset (compared to LMT) from 7:32 pm to 8:15pm (as we have had with year-round EST / CDT since the 1960's). To achieve this, they are willing to tolerate sunsets as early as 4:20 pm in December (15 minutes earlier than we would have with LMT).
As I mentioned in a previous comment, this is virtually the same amount of additional sunlight that several other parts of the country are seemingly content to achieve with Daylight Saving Time, including a number of other major U.S. cities such as Spokane WA, Las Vegas NV, Nashville TN, Montgomery AL, and Boston MA.
In my opinion, neither side is objectively right or wrong. It just comes down to individual preference and would perhaps therefore best be decided eventually by some sort of statewide referendum.
It appears to me that collective individual preference should have greater weight than the collective voice of the business owners and executives. The reason I say this is that regardless of which time zone the state ends up in (and I hope that it does end up predominantly in a single zone), individual business owners and executives are still free to operate and manager their businesses on whichever schedule provides them the greatest competitive advantage, as they always have been.
They don't need to be in a particular time zone to ask an employee to work whatever shift is needed for best communication with business associates in other time zones. It is already common practice for U.S. businesses to ask employees to plan their workday or work week around a very early or very late conference call with a business several time zones away.
I hope that helps to bring the emotions on this issue into a little better perspective.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Fri, 16 Sep 2005, 11:49pm EST / CDT
My DOT post of 16 Sep 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana
Docket: OST-2005-22114-391
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (supplement)
===========================================
I think it is helpful to make one final wrap-up of what I see as the pros and cons of Central time versus Eastern time.
The baseline to which I mentally compare our two alternative time zones is Indianapolis local mean time (LMT).
There is a pretty good definition of LMT at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_mean_time". This page defines LMT in part as follows. "Local mean time was used from the early nineteenth century... until standard time was adopted..."
In other words LMT is the time Indianapolis would have observed before the the U.S. Standard Time Act first established the four continental U.S. standard time zones in 1918. LMT is similar to apparent local time, but corrected for the inherent 15-minute-per-year or so variation of the sun's east-to-west position in the sky.
With LMT and without any daylight time, the earliest sunrise of the year in Indianapolis would be 4:32 am about June 14. The latest sunrise would be 7:22 am about January 5. The earliest sunset would be 4:35 pm about December 7 and the latest sunset would be 7:32 pm about June 28. These are the baselines against which we compare the shift in time by observing Central or Eastern standard time.
I perceive that the major benefit of Daylight Saving Time (DST) to Indiana commerce is not due to the specific time zone into which the DOT decides to put Indiana, but is primarily due to nearly all of Indiana being on a single time, and everyone else in the U.S. who observes DST always knowing exactly how many hours different their time is from any particular city in Indiana. If the DOT ends up putting all, or nearly all, of Indiana in a single zone, this would obviously make it even easier for anyone in the U.S. to know the time almost anywhere in Indiana any day of the year.
With about 394 miles of Indiana bordering the Central time portions of Illinois and Kentucky and about 393 miles bordering the Eastern time portions of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky, there are going to be approximately as many people having to adjust to having neighbors across the state line on a different time whether Indiana is on Central or Eastern, so I don't think that is a significant factor favoring either time zone.
I believe that so many Hoosiers feel so strongly about the time because with our particular north-south latitude we have such a wide variation in the amount of sunlight over the course of a year. At the summer solstice (about June 21), the longest day is about 14.99 hours in Indianapolis. At the winter solstice (about December 22), the shortest day is only 9.35 hours. This is about 5½ more hours of daylight to figure out how to distribute most conveniently in June compared to December, when we start being concerned about people getting safely to their destinations in the morning or evening darkness or dusk.
Although couched in the preferred DOT criteria of "convenience of commerce", I believe that a lot of the passion on the issue, particularly away from the border counties of the state, mainly comes down to the following individual preference.
The Eastern proponents prefer to have the latest sunset (nominally 7:32 pm) extended 103 minutes later than LMT to 9:15 pm and prefer to have the earliest sunset in December no earlier than 5:20 pm. They value these later sunset times enough to tolerate having the sunrise extended those same 103 minutes to as late as 8:15 am just before we go back to standard time for the winter in early November (starting 2007).
On the other hand, I believe most Central proponents value either a not quite so late winter morning sunrise, a not quite so late summer sunset, or both, and therefore prefer a more modest 43-minute extension of the latest sunset (compared to LMT) from 7:32 pm to 8:15pm (as we have had with year-round EST / CDT since the 1960's). To achieve this, they are willing to tolerate sunsets as early as 4:20 pm in December (15 minutes earlier than we would have with LMT).
As I mentioned in a previous comment, this is virtually the same amount of additional sunlight that several other parts of the country are seemingly content to achieve with Daylight Saving Time, including a number of other major U.S. cities such as Spokane WA, Las Vegas NV, Nashville TN, Montgomery AL, and Boston MA.
In my opinion, neither side is objectively right or wrong. It just comes down to individual preference and would perhaps therefore best be decided eventually by some sort of statewide referendum.
It appears to me that collective individual preference should have greater weight than the collective voice of the business owners and executives. The reason I say this is that regardless of which time zone the state ends up in (and I hope that it does end up predominantly in a single zone), individual business owners and executives are still free to operate and manager their businesses on whichever schedule provides them the greatest competitive advantage, as they always have been.
They don't need to be in a particular time zone to ask an employee to work whatever shift is needed for best communication with business associates in other time zones. It is already common practice for U.S. businesses to ask employees to plan their workday or work week around a very early or very late conference call with a business several time zones away.
I hope that helps to bring the emotions on this issue into a little better perspective.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Fri, 16 Sep 2005, 11:49pm EST / CDT
My DOT post of 16 Sep 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana
My DOT post of 14 Sep 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana
Title: Time Zone Boundaries in the State of Indiana
Docket: OST-2005-22114-130
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (supplement)
===========================================
I have noticed that quite a few proponents of Eastern time express a concern that it would not be worthwhile observing Daylight Saving Time if Indiana is in the Central zone.
This is certainly a valid concern that deserves evaluation against solid facts. I find that it is helpful to compare how much additional evening daylight we would have on Central Daylight Time with other places in the country that are about midway between the middle and eastern edge of a standard time zone, like Indiana.
Indianapolis is a handy city to use for reference, since it is almost exactly the geographic center of Indiana, as well as the state capitol. According the the U.S. Naval Observatory website, the longitude of Indianapolis is 86.13 degrees. This puts us 3.87 degrees east of the nearest standard time zone meridian, which is at 90 degrees (Central time). The other standard time zone meridian lines for the continental U.S. are at 75 (Eastern), 105 (Mountain), and 120 (Pacific).
Being 3.87 degrees east of the nearest meridian means that the sun sets in Indy about 15 minutes earlier than at the center of the nearest standard time zone. Other major U.S. cities which are also located 10 to 20 minutes east of their nearest standard time zone meridian include Spokane WA (10 minutes east), Nashville TN (13 minutes east), Boston (16 minutes east), and Las Vegas (19 minutes east).
The following table illustrates the additional number of minutes of daylight each of these comparably-situated cities enjoys after noon than before, for four representative dates in 2006. The sunrise and sunset times used to make this calculation are from the U.S. Naval Observatory website (with one hour added for Daylight Time April through October).
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.html
The first date (January) is mid-winter, about midway through the standard time period. The following three dates are representative of the beginning (April), middle (July), and end (October) of the daylight saving time period. On January 15, although the evening and morning daylight is about equal, the parentheses indicate that there are a few more minutes of sun in the morning than in the evening that time of year (when not observing Daylight time).
MORE MINUTES OF SUN AFTER NOON THAN BEFORE
1/15 4/15 7/15 10/15
===== ===== ===== =====
Spokane WA (2) 100 110 70
Nashville TN (7) 95 105 65
Indianapolis (12) 90 101 60
Boston (12) 90 100 60
Las Vegas (19) 82 93 53
As the table shows, the facts give little basis for concern that Indiana will not still receive the benefit of significant additional evening sunshine while observing Central Daylight Saving Time (just as we effectively have for the past few decades on EST). Daylight Saving Time gives a substantial shift of daylight from morning to evening throughout the daylight saving period.
The amount of extra evening daylight is in the same general range enjoyed by other areas of the U.S. which are also located midway across the eastern half of a standard time zone like Indiana.
In fact, the table shows that the benefit to Indiana from Daylight Saving on Central time is nearly identical to that of Boston on Eastern time (which lies almost exactly one full standard time zone -- 15 degrees -- to our east). I don't see anything in the news about Boston's wanting to be in the next time zone to its east (Atlantic Time) because it doesn't think it's getting enough benefit from Daylight Time.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
14 Sep 2005
My DOT post of 14 Sep 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana
Docket: OST-2005-22114-130
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (supplement)
===========================================
I have noticed that quite a few proponents of Eastern time express a concern that it would not be worthwhile observing Daylight Saving Time if Indiana is in the Central zone.
This is certainly a valid concern that deserves evaluation against solid facts. I find that it is helpful to compare how much additional evening daylight we would have on Central Daylight Time with other places in the country that are about midway between the middle and eastern edge of a standard time zone, like Indiana.
Indianapolis is a handy city to use for reference, since it is almost exactly the geographic center of Indiana, as well as the state capitol. According the the U.S. Naval Observatory website, the longitude of Indianapolis is 86.13 degrees. This puts us 3.87 degrees east of the nearest standard time zone meridian, which is at 90 degrees (Central time). The other standard time zone meridian lines for the continental U.S. are at 75 (Eastern), 105 (Mountain), and 120 (Pacific).
Being 3.87 degrees east of the nearest meridian means that the sun sets in Indy about 15 minutes earlier than at the center of the nearest standard time zone. Other major U.S. cities which are also located 10 to 20 minutes east of their nearest standard time zone meridian include Spokane WA (10 minutes east), Nashville TN (13 minutes east), Boston (16 minutes east), and Las Vegas (19 minutes east).
The following table illustrates the additional number of minutes of daylight each of these comparably-situated cities enjoys after noon than before, for four representative dates in 2006. The sunrise and sunset times used to make this calculation are from the U.S. Naval Observatory website (with one hour added for Daylight Time April through October).
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.html
The first date (January) is mid-winter, about midway through the standard time period. The following three dates are representative of the beginning (April), middle (July), and end (October) of the daylight saving time period. On January 15, although the evening and morning daylight is about equal, the parentheses indicate that there are a few more minutes of sun in the morning than in the evening that time of year (when not observing Daylight time).
MORE MINUTES OF SUN AFTER NOON THAN BEFORE
1/15 4/15 7/15 10/15
===== ===== ===== =====
Spokane WA (2) 100 110 70
Nashville TN (7) 95 105 65
Indianapolis (12) 90 101 60
Boston (12) 90 100 60
Las Vegas (19) 82 93 53
As the table shows, the facts give little basis for concern that Indiana will not still receive the benefit of significant additional evening sunshine while observing Central Daylight Saving Time (just as we effectively have for the past few decades on EST). Daylight Saving Time gives a substantial shift of daylight from morning to evening throughout the daylight saving period.
The amount of extra evening daylight is in the same general range enjoyed by other areas of the U.S. which are also located midway across the eastern half of a standard time zone like Indiana.
In fact, the table shows that the benefit to Indiana from Daylight Saving on Central time is nearly identical to that of Boston on Eastern time (which lies almost exactly one full standard time zone -- 15 degrees -- to our east). I don't see anything in the news about Boston's wanting to be in the next time zone to its east (Atlantic Time) because it doesn't think it's getting enough benefit from Daylight Time.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
14 Sep 2005
My DOT post of 14 Sep 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana
My DOT post of 11 Sep 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana
Title: Time Zone Boundaries in the State of Indiana
Docket: OST-2005-22114
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME
==============================
I request that the Department of Transportation issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), which will solicit public comment, and schedule public hearings on the proposed time zone change for Indiana.
I respectfully petition the DOT to seriously consider moving Bartholomew County and the entire state of Indiana back to the Central time zone. When time zones were first enacted by Congress (Standard Time Act of 1918), the Central-Eastern line bisected Ohio, so the western half of Ohio and virtually all of Michigan and Kentucky fell within the natural boundaries of the Central time zone. All of Indiana was located in the Central time zone. This was because, with longitude ranging from 85 to 88 degrees, it falls well within the 15-degree range for Central time from 82.5 to 97.5 degrees longitude.
I think it would be less confusing for Indiana residents, as well as for the rest of the country, if as many Indiana counties as possible all observe the same time. Central time appears the most logical choice to me, from business as well as personal perspectives.
The primary selling point that Governor Daniels made for Indiana's switch to daylight saving time was to put Indiana in sync year-round with most of the rest of the United States. From this perspective, either Eastern or Central time would be equally advantageous -- we would still change our clocks with the rest of the country twice per year, and always be the same number of hours different from just anywhere else in the U.S. that observes Daylight Saving Time.
And the rest of the country is already accustomed to dealing with Indiana businesses on both Central and Eastern time for about six months of each year, so neither zone should require more of an adjustment for our business partners than the other.
Since 1963 or so, most of Indiana has been three hours ahead of the west coast from October through April, and two hours ahead through the summer. We have observed year-round Eastern Standard Time (UTC -0500), which based on our longitude, is equivalent to year-round Central Daylight Saving Time.
Being on Central time would serve the convenience of commerce by putting Indiana businesses at most two hours away from all of our customers and suppliers in the continental U.S., rather than being up to three hours different from the rest of the country on Eastern time. This would expand opportunities for business with the west coast, without harming our relations with the east coast, which is already accustomed to being one hour ahead of us half the year anyway.
Kevin Brinegar, President, Indiana Chamber of Commerce, points out that 39 percent of Indiana's exports are with states that observe Eastern DST. This implies that the remaining 61 percent is with states that lie west of Indiana, with whom our time difference would be the one hour less if we observed Central time.
Another argument for Central time is to align ourself most closely with the population center of the country. The mean center of population of the United States is in Missouri, and moving westward with every census.
One argument for Eastern time is that Indiana borders more states that are in the ETZ than the CTZ. However, counting states gives only a superficial assessment. Michigan, Ohio and part of Kentucky are in the ETZ. Illinois and the western part of Kentucky are in the CTZ. The shared border with ETZ states is approximately 400 miles, while the border shared with those in CTZ is approximately 390 miles. A difference of only ten miles makes this argument nearly pointless. And, even those parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky that currently observe eastern time where they border Indiana actually fall within the Central time zone according to their longitude as well.
Obviously, wherever a time zone boundary occurs, residents living near that boundary have to learn to live with it, so I see no compelling argument for or against Indiana's observing either time zone. It's just a question of whether residents on the west and south or those on the north and east sides of the state need to make the adjustment, and there are about as many miles of border affected either way.
Some worry that if Indiana is on Central time that we will not enjoy the benefit of Daylight Saving Time, but by observing year-round Eastern time while lying geographically in the Central zone, we were effectively already enjoying year-round Daylight Saving Time and would not lose out on the additional hour of summer evening sunlight by observing Central Daylight Saving Time. On Central time, we will continue to enjoy the same additional sunlight in the summer evenings -- about 1.5 hours more evening sun than morning sun per day on average, while gaining one hour additional morning sunlight during the late fall and winter months of the school year.
Some Indiana business people like being an hour behind when the stock markets in New York close, so they can leave work an hour earlier and spend more time with their family.
Drive-in theater owners also favor Central time because families can get home an hour earlier after a night at the movies.
After we have begun to observe Daylight Saving Time in 2007 on Sunday, March 11, it appears much more sensible to be on Central time and have the sun rising in Indianapolis at 7am rather than 8am and setting at 6:50pm rather than 7:50pm. This gives motorists commuting to work, and schoolchildren walking and catching buses to school, in the morning an additional hour for well-lit safe travel compared to Eastern Time.
In addition to the concern about children waiting outside in the dark for their school buses in the morning, many argue that sending children to bed while it's still daylight can be difficult and might even affect a child's performance at school.
Some point out that having to stay up later to watch television shows will be an inconvenience for many people, possibly even affecting their performance at work the following day.
On Central Daylight Time, we would still have 1.8 hours more evening sun than morning sun on March 12. Shifting the time by one hour is intended to give a net two surplus hours in the evening versus the morning, and this is about what we would have with Central Daylight Time. Eastern Daylight Time would effectively be double daylight time, with almost two hours shifted from morning to evening, giving 3.8 hours more evening sun than morning sun.
When the time zones were initially established in the United States, they were approximately 15 degrees wide, centered every on every even multiple of 15 degrees longitude. This layout had the effect of putting local mean time for every point in the country within 30 minutes of the standard time for its time zone.
Indianapolis is about 15 minutes east of the 90-degree central meridian for the Central zone, but about 45 minutes from the 75-degree central meridian for Eastern, making Central the obvious choice for the whole state.
If Indiana remains in the Eastern zone, I understand that we would be the only state in the U.S. that lies completely within the mathematical boundaries of one time zone (Central) and yet observes a different time zone.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
http://hoosiersforcentraltime.com
Sun, 11 Sep 2005
http://dms.dot.gov/search/document.cfm?documentid=345026&docketid=22114
Docket: OST-2005-22114
To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001
PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME
==============================
I request that the Department of Transportation issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), which will solicit public comment, and schedule public hearings on the proposed time zone change for Indiana.
I respectfully petition the DOT to seriously consider moving Bartholomew County and the entire state of Indiana back to the Central time zone. When time zones were first enacted by Congress (Standard Time Act of 1918), the Central-Eastern line bisected Ohio, so the western half of Ohio and virtually all of Michigan and Kentucky fell within the natural boundaries of the Central time zone. All of Indiana was located in the Central time zone. This was because, with longitude ranging from 85 to 88 degrees, it falls well within the 15-degree range for Central time from 82.5 to 97.5 degrees longitude.
I think it would be less confusing for Indiana residents, as well as for the rest of the country, if as many Indiana counties as possible all observe the same time. Central time appears the most logical choice to me, from business as well as personal perspectives.
The primary selling point that Governor Daniels made for Indiana's switch to daylight saving time was to put Indiana in sync year-round with most of the rest of the United States. From this perspective, either Eastern or Central time would be equally advantageous -- we would still change our clocks with the rest of the country twice per year, and always be the same number of hours different from just anywhere else in the U.S. that observes Daylight Saving Time.
And the rest of the country is already accustomed to dealing with Indiana businesses on both Central and Eastern time for about six months of each year, so neither zone should require more of an adjustment for our business partners than the other.
Since 1963 or so, most of Indiana has been three hours ahead of the west coast from October through April, and two hours ahead through the summer. We have observed year-round Eastern Standard Time (UTC -0500), which based on our longitude, is equivalent to year-round Central Daylight Saving Time.
Being on Central time would serve the convenience of commerce by putting Indiana businesses at most two hours away from all of our customers and suppliers in the continental U.S., rather than being up to three hours different from the rest of the country on Eastern time. This would expand opportunities for business with the west coast, without harming our relations with the east coast, which is already accustomed to being one hour ahead of us half the year anyway.
Kevin Brinegar, President, Indiana Chamber of Commerce, points out that 39 percent of Indiana's exports are with states that observe Eastern DST. This implies that the remaining 61 percent is with states that lie west of Indiana, with whom our time difference would be the one hour less if we observed Central time.
Another argument for Central time is to align ourself most closely with the population center of the country. The mean center of population of the United States is in Missouri, and moving westward with every census.
One argument for Eastern time is that Indiana borders more states that are in the ETZ than the CTZ. However, counting states gives only a superficial assessment. Michigan, Ohio and part of Kentucky are in the ETZ. Illinois and the western part of Kentucky are in the CTZ. The shared border with ETZ states is approximately 400 miles, while the border shared with those in CTZ is approximately 390 miles. A difference of only ten miles makes this argument nearly pointless. And, even those parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky that currently observe eastern time where they border Indiana actually fall within the Central time zone according to their longitude as well.
Obviously, wherever a time zone boundary occurs, residents living near that boundary have to learn to live with it, so I see no compelling argument for or against Indiana's observing either time zone. It's just a question of whether residents on the west and south or those on the north and east sides of the state need to make the adjustment, and there are about as many miles of border affected either way.
Some worry that if Indiana is on Central time that we will not enjoy the benefit of Daylight Saving Time, but by observing year-round Eastern time while lying geographically in the Central zone, we were effectively already enjoying year-round Daylight Saving Time and would not lose out on the additional hour of summer evening sunlight by observing Central Daylight Saving Time. On Central time, we will continue to enjoy the same additional sunlight in the summer evenings -- about 1.5 hours more evening sun than morning sun per day on average, while gaining one hour additional morning sunlight during the late fall and winter months of the school year.
Some Indiana business people like being an hour behind when the stock markets in New York close, so they can leave work an hour earlier and spend more time with their family.
Drive-in theater owners also favor Central time because families can get home an hour earlier after a night at the movies.
After we have begun to observe Daylight Saving Time in 2007 on Sunday, March 11, it appears much more sensible to be on Central time and have the sun rising in Indianapolis at 7am rather than 8am and setting at 6:50pm rather than 7:50pm. This gives motorists commuting to work, and schoolchildren walking and catching buses to school, in the morning an additional hour for well-lit safe travel compared to Eastern Time.
In addition to the concern about children waiting outside in the dark for their school buses in the morning, many argue that sending children to bed while it's still daylight can be difficult and might even affect a child's performance at school.
Some point out that having to stay up later to watch television shows will be an inconvenience for many people, possibly even affecting their performance at work the following day.
On Central Daylight Time, we would still have 1.8 hours more evening sun than morning sun on March 12. Shifting the time by one hour is intended to give a net two surplus hours in the evening versus the morning, and this is about what we would have with Central Daylight Time. Eastern Daylight Time would effectively be double daylight time, with almost two hours shifted from morning to evening, giving 3.8 hours more evening sun than morning sun.
When the time zones were initially established in the United States, they were approximately 15 degrees wide, centered every on every even multiple of 15 degrees longitude. This layout had the effect of putting local mean time for every point in the country within 30 minutes of the standard time for its time zone.
Indianapolis is about 15 minutes east of the 90-degree central meridian for the Central zone, but about 45 minutes from the 75-degree central meridian for Eastern, making Central the obvious choice for the whole state.
If Indiana remains in the Eastern zone, I understand that we would be the only state in the U.S. that lies completely within the mathematical boundaries of one time zone (Central) and yet observes a different time zone.
Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
http://hoosiersforcentraltime.com
Sun, 11 Sep 2005
http://dms.dot.gov/search/document.cfm?documentid=345026&docketid=22114
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
WorldNetDaily: Is it permissible? -- federal hurricane relief unconstitutional
Dr. Walter E. Williams writes:
"Last week, President Bush promised the nation that the federal government will pay for most of the costs of repairing hurricane-ravaged New Orleans...
"There's no question that New Orleans and her sister Gulf Coast cities have been struck with a major disaster, but should our Constitution become a part of the disaster? ...
"In February 1887, President Grover Cleveland, upon vetoing a bill appropriating money to aid drought-stricken farmers in Texas, said, 'I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and the duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit.'
"President Cleveland added, 'The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.' ...
"In 1854, after vetoing a popular appropriation to assist the mentally ill, President Franklin Pierce said, 'I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity.' To approve such spending, argued Pierce, 'would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.' ...
"James Madison, the father of our Constitution, irate over a $15,000 congressional appropriation to assist some French refugees, said, 'I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.' ...
"In 1828, South Carolina Sen. William Drayton said, 'If Congress can determine what constitutes the general welfare and can appropriate money for its advancement, where is the limitation to carrying into execution whatever can be effected by money?'
"Don't get me wrong about this. I'm not being too critical of President Bush or any other politician. There's such a broad ignorance or contempt for constitutional principles among the American people that any politician who bore truth faith and allegiance to the Constitution would commit political suicide."
WorldNetDaily: Is it permissible?
"Last week, President Bush promised the nation that the federal government will pay for most of the costs of repairing hurricane-ravaged New Orleans...
"There's no question that New Orleans and her sister Gulf Coast cities have been struck with a major disaster, but should our Constitution become a part of the disaster? ...
"In February 1887, President Grover Cleveland, upon vetoing a bill appropriating money to aid drought-stricken farmers in Texas, said, 'I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and the duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit.'
"President Cleveland added, 'The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.' ...
"In 1854, after vetoing a popular appropriation to assist the mentally ill, President Franklin Pierce said, 'I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity.' To approve such spending, argued Pierce, 'would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded.' ...
"James Madison, the father of our Constitution, irate over a $15,000 congressional appropriation to assist some French refugees, said, 'I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.' ...
"In 1828, South Carolina Sen. William Drayton said, 'If Congress can determine what constitutes the general welfare and can appropriate money for its advancement, where is the limitation to carrying into execution whatever can be effected by money?'
"Don't get me wrong about this. I'm not being too critical of President Bush or any other politician. There's such a broad ignorance or contempt for constitutional principles among the American people that any politician who bore truth faith and allegiance to the Constitution would commit political suicide."
WorldNetDaily: Is it permissible?
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Hurricane Katrina Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State
Robert Tracinski writes:
What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state. What we consider 'normal' behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond to a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that the government hasn't taken care of them. They don't use the chaos of a disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.
"But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them.
"The welfare state--and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains and encourages--is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans. And that is the story that no one is reporting."
What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state. What we consider 'normal' behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond to a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that the government hasn't taken care of them. They don't use the chaos of a disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.
"But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them.
"The welfare state--and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains and encourages--is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans. And that is the story that no one is reporting."
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
WorldNetDaily: What independence?
Vox Day writes:
"There is always an inherent conflict between government and freedom. Nearly every act of government, almost every law and regulation that is imposed from above, is intended to limit freedom. What conservatives must understand is that it is not always possible to be a fine, upstanding, law-abiding citizen and be a free man at the same time. In fact, for most of human history, it has been impossible. The American revolutionaries were lawbreakers of the worst kind, for they were directly challenging those who were their rightful masters in the eyes of the law. And yet even today, few would argue that their disobedience was both just and right.
"The question of justice turns on the point of whether government – on all levels – has overstepped its lawful bounds. For if the laws of government have passed those limits, they are not law, but mere dictatorial assertions, with no more force than that which the government can muster. And while it is wise to obey under the threat of force, one has no moral obligation to do so, and as the recent history of Eastern Europe shows, once the people become aware that the threat of force is empty, they will begin to ignore both the government and its illegitimate laws with alacrity.
"It is impossible to know what the future holds for the United States, but one thing is sure. All governments fall in time. Ironically, governments that rely on force are more fragile than most and tend to fall even faster. The merciless totalitarians of the Soviet Union lasted a mere 72 years, a historical blip when compared with the lifespan of the British monarchy, the Roman Empire or even the neo-democratic oligarchy of the United States of America.
"The genius of America was its independence. As that independence has been systematically reduced over the years, so too has its competitive advantage over other, less free, nations declined. The best and brightest have been leaving the country for years, and the American brain drain is accelerating as the Internet has made it possible to run a software company from the Bahamas or an import-export operation from Ireland, where the taxes are lower and there's no danger of losing your home to a Wal-Mart.
"In summary, this is not a day to celebrate American independence. It is, instead, a day to mourn America's passing and pray for its eventual rebirth."
WorldNetDaily: What independence?
"There is always an inherent conflict between government and freedom. Nearly every act of government, almost every law and regulation that is imposed from above, is intended to limit freedom. What conservatives must understand is that it is not always possible to be a fine, upstanding, law-abiding citizen and be a free man at the same time. In fact, for most of human history, it has been impossible. The American revolutionaries were lawbreakers of the worst kind, for they were directly challenging those who were their rightful masters in the eyes of the law. And yet even today, few would argue that their disobedience was both just and right.
"The question of justice turns on the point of whether government – on all levels – has overstepped its lawful bounds. For if the laws of government have passed those limits, they are not law, but mere dictatorial assertions, with no more force than that which the government can muster. And while it is wise to obey under the threat of force, one has no moral obligation to do so, and as the recent history of Eastern Europe shows, once the people become aware that the threat of force is empty, they will begin to ignore both the government and its illegitimate laws with alacrity.
"It is impossible to know what the future holds for the United States, but one thing is sure. All governments fall in time. Ironically, governments that rely on force are more fragile than most and tend to fall even faster. The merciless totalitarians of the Soviet Union lasted a mere 72 years, a historical blip when compared with the lifespan of the British monarchy, the Roman Empire or even the neo-democratic oligarchy of the United States of America.
"The genius of America was its independence. As that independence has been systematically reduced over the years, so too has its competitive advantage over other, less free, nations declined. The best and brightest have been leaving the country for years, and the American brain drain is accelerating as the Internet has made it possible to run a software company from the Bahamas or an import-export operation from Ireland, where the taxes are lower and there's no danger of losing your home to a Wal-Mart.
"In summary, this is not a day to celebrate American independence. It is, instead, a day to mourn America's passing and pray for its eventual rebirth."
WorldNetDaily: What independence?
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